Of Frozen Vein
by ninjab
Summary: A new Half-blood arrives at camp just as Rachel gets a feeling that the next great prophesy has been triggered. Before long, Alexix finds herself thrown into a quest to save a world she didn't know existed. Fortunately, she has some experienced fighters to help, your famous fiery friend, for example. But with the minor gods out for her blood, who knows what could go down?
1. Chapter 1

**I could only fit four characters in the box, but for copyright purposes, I would like to point out that most of the characters did not come from me. In addition to the Stoll brothers, Leo, and Annabeth, I borrowed Percy J., Piper M., Frank Z., and the rest of the seven from the great mind of Rick Riordan himself. I also borrowed some of his descriptions for the gods, leaders/ co-leaders of the cabins, and some campers. Only Alexix and much of the storyline belong to me.**

* * *

**_Alexix_**

I don't want to go." I told my mother firmly, but it was no use. I would have a better chance convincing a polar bear to move back to Texas with me.

"You know it's the only way after what you've done."

I scowled. "I told you I didn't do it."

"Yet you wouldn't tell me, or the police, who did... do it. I don't have a choice Alexix. You knew this was coming. Would you rather have me send you to one of those juvenile delinquent places? This is the only option for you."

"Fine." I snapped. Then I jumped out of the car. Wincing slightly as the heat hit my skin, I dashed away from the SUV and its rusted sides and its cheesy toys stuffed between the torn up seats. I dashed away from the smell of fast food and the leftover French fries that had long since gone cold and the empty wrappers that once held sustenance and now held nothing but grease smears. I dashed away from the one thing that would take me back to screaming children and Lego's and Polly Pocket's and wrestling matches. And my mother. I dashed away from her too. I ran towards the big white house that stood at the top of the hill.

The sun bore down on me angrily as though desperate to sear the skin off of my bones. I wasn't sure I could make it to the top, but I did, collapsing into the chilled, manufactured air. I leaned heavily against the nearest wall and looked around the room.

There was a pair of kids in there, I guessed they were campers. They were dressed in matching orange t-shirts, but that was about where their similarities ended. The girl who stood there was red faced and huge. She looked like a female version of Digger, all muscle, and her expression told me that she enjoyed crushing the skulls of puppies in her free time.

The boy was thinner, shorter. His face was leaner, and his scowl didn't seem as unfriendly as the girl's, but his eyes were deep, almost troubled, like he knew everyone's secrets, even before they did. It seemed that they were in a screaming match, but they had fallen silent when I walked in. Now both of their glares were aimed at me. Awesome.

"Hey, uh, Chiron?" The guy called nervously, "We've got company."

An older guy walked in, ducking under the door frame. At first I thought he was just freakishly tall, and then I realized that he was riding a horse, only he wasn't riding it. He _was_ the horse. I stumbled backwards wide-eyed. I would have left, but the heat from outside was a pretty convincing argument to stay indoors.

"you're a… he's a… that's not…" I stammered, sounding like my little brother, West.

"A centaur, my dear, and your name?" the guy looked like a hippie, long beard, shaggy hair, shirtless.

"I, uh, Alexix." I managed to get out.

The hefty girl snorted. "Great, that's just what we need right now. A newbie."

The boy's scowl deepened. "Shut up, Clarisse. You know we're supposed to take in all the new campers. You look a bit older than thirteen, though." I crossed my arms over my chest as he looked me over critically.

Clarisse frowned and grabbed at the handle of… was that a sword? "Shut up? Don't tell me to shut up you…"

"Hush child. Why don't you two take the matter outside? We can resume our discussion at a later time."

The two walked out, Clarisse staring me down the whole way. Once they were gone, I shoved myself off of the wall and moved farther into the room. Chiron gestured to a sofa, but I shook my head.

"This is where I'm supposed to come right? The sign-in place or whatever?"

Chiron nodded. "I'll show you an orientation video for the camp, but I thought we might have a conversation first."

I sighed, but didn't sit down. "Fine, you want to talk, we'll talk. Really though, I don't think your methods are totally sound. I mean, I don't know what that chick, Clarisse is in here for, but she didn't seem to be one you should trust around sharp objects. She had a sword."

"I'm aware of the delusions that you have been under, but this isn't an ordinary camp."

"Yeah, I know. Obviously this is a place for bad kids like me or freaks like you. No offense. That still doesn't make me want to be here."

Chiron frowned and opened his mouth to speak again, but before he could say anything the phone rang. Chiron sighed and motioned for me to stay put. Then, he trotted back out, which I took as my cue to leave. I shut the door carefully behind me so it didn't make a noise, and I was free.

I walked through the camp alone. There was a lot of orange which, quite frankly, was a huge put off. It seemed that everyone was wearing it. I looked around for someone to talk to, but no one looked very welcoming. Finally, I decided I might be better off hovering at the edges of the camp instead of actually trying to meet someone.

Choosing an isolated tree just a short distance into the woods, where the air was cooler and the sun was blocked by the trees, I turned and looked over the campground. There was a volleyball sandpit next to a basketball court. Both were filled with kids that seemed to be super talented athletically. That definitely wasn't for me. Farther back, there was a rock wall with… was that lava? And archery fields, and even a forge! This was the coolest delinquent summer camp I had ever seen, but I would have traded it all to be back in Texas with my friends.

I wondered idly what Jenna would be doing. My best friend since kindergarten, Jenna was as much a part of me as my right hand. We used to do everything together. Then my mom gave me the news of a summer camp. Jenna did everything she could to get in too, but the camp was full before she was accepted. In the end, she ended up getting in more trouble than the camp was worth. Two days in and I was already missing her. Worse was the stupid no phones rule the camp had, not that my mom would give me a cell phone anyway. Jenna was farther away than ever, which meant I was alone.

Over by the huge white house, the half horse man had come back out and was talking with a pair of campers. He gestured to the trees and a sinking sensation filled my gut. There was always a chance that they weren't talking about me of course, but something told me that wasn't the case. Turning, I started forcing my way back into the woods. There were lots of trees, which was sort of cool. There weren't a lot of trees in my part of Texas. I guess there were probably more down by the coast or maybe up in the mountain area, but I was bred in the flatlands. All this green was a foreign concept to me.

Suddenly, something burst out of the trees to my right with a roar. Letting out a gasp of surprise, I stumbled back. Unfortunately, I wasn't in Texas anymore and my way back was blocked by a tree. With wide eyes, I stood pinned as a huge metallic looking lion stared me down. "Oh… my…"

"Leo!" a boy's voice called out through the trees and I heard something crashing through the foliage.

The lions ears rotated with a whir, but his eyes were trained on me. I took a closer look at the metal of his teeth. Unfortunately, they looked extremely real and horribly sharp. Its eyes were two dark video cameras zooming in on my face. Really, it was an amazing piece. I could have spent hours just looking at the outside, if only it wasn't trying to kill me. Those are the breaks I suppose. The lion lowered its torso—do robots have a torso part?—and though I don't speak lion fluently, I figured this meant it was ready to eat.

It opened its mouth and roared again this time accentuating it with a burst of flame. If I hadn't rolled to my left, I would have been flambéed. As it was, I realized that I was not meant to be a forest ninja, and I ended up sprawled all over the ground. I shoved myself up using another tree and faced the lion again.

Then a boy burst through the same area that the lion had launched itself. "Leo!" he said with obvious relief. Then he spotted me, "Whoa, no. Uh, bad lion." He said, stepping between us.

To me this seemed an extremely bad idea, but this kid pulled a remote out of his pocket and started hitting a bazillion buttons, ignoring my look telling him he was insane. I guess he was right because the robo-lion shut down.

The kid turned to me, and I got my first good look at him. He had dark brown curly hair that splayed across his tanned forehead. His eyes were dark and full of concern, and I saw him summing me up too. I raised my chin defensively, and his face split into an impish grin.

"Are you alright?" He asked through his smile.

"I'm fine, thanks." I tried not to be too curt, but this wasn't exactly what I had imagined my first impression would be like.

"Why didn't you scream?" The question made my face burn, though I couldn't tell if it was with embarrassment or anger at his assumption.

"I wasn't afraid." I snapped, shoving off of my tree. Then I remembered I was supposed to be making friends and softened my tone a tad. "That's super cool. Where did you get it?"

"I made it. Child of Hephaestus and all. It's kinda my thing."

I tilted my head, "Child of Hephaestus? What does that mean?"

His eyes widened, and he scanned me again. Self-conscious, I looked myself over too, but aside from a bit of extra dirt on my knees, I didn't see anything out of the ordinary, "What?" I demanded.

"Uh… nothing. Didn't you go through orientation with Chiron though?"

I scowled. "He had to take a phone call."

"So you left?" he puffed out his cheeks and shoved his hands through his hair. "Right, well I think I, uh, should get, um, Piper. Or maybe Jason or Percy. Or Annabeth or…"

"I get it; you're not the guy to talk to. That's cool. Nice meeting you anyways, uh…"

"Leo." He stuck out his hand though it was covered in motor oil.

I narrowed my eyes at the hand suspiciously. "Wasn't that the lion's name?"

This time he blushed. "Oh, well, Leo means lion, so it seemed like a fitting name. The fact that we happen to share the _nombre_ is totally a coincidence."

There was a laugh in the woods to my left, "Yeah right. You name all of your inventions Leo."

I grinned as two more figures emerged from the woods. I recognized them as the two campers that the horse guy was talking to, and my smile faded a bit. Leo blushed a little deeper than laughed and gave a sweeping bow to introduce the new pair. "This is Annabeth and Percy. Percy's the guy and Annabeth is—"

"I'm sure she can figure that bit out." Annabeth cut in, rolling her eyes. When she focused them back on me, I felt like a bug under a magnifying glass. Percy was looking me over too, and I had to bite back a sigh. I suppose I should get used to being looked at. Jenna would have called it one of the 'New girl probs'.

"You're Alexia?" Percy asked, as though there were a bunch of different new campers running around.

"Alexix. I don't really do nicknames until I get to know you better." I wasn't trying to be snarky, but I was kind of fed up.

"Right, well, welcome to Camp Half-Blood." He grinned at me and I tried to smile back.

"Why don't you boys go do something productive while I go talk with Alexix?" Annabeth's question left no room for argument, and the boys both left, though Percy gave her a quick kiss before he went.

"Your boyfriend?" I asked once they were gone.

Annabeth smiled, "Yeah. So, let's get you orientated, shall we?"

I scowled again. "You know what? That's alright. I'm fine, really. All oriented up."

Annabeth hooked her arm through mine and led me out of the woods, obviously not believing me. "So, I have a bit of tough news for you. Everyone here at this camp is a demigod. That means that one of our parents was a human and the other…"

My eyes widened. "Oh no. No way. Trust me, if you knew my parents you wouldn't try to convince me that they were anything more than what they are. Which is human, just so we're clear. This camp is for the bad kids, the messed up psychos."

She looked at me sympathetically, like she had expected my denial. "I bet you're ADHD, right? Most of us are. Dyslexic, too. That's normal, it's 'cause we're more than what we are. Shuffled around to a bunch of schools and labeled troublemakers. My boyfriend, Percy, he's been to let's see… seven schools now? And obviously you've gotten into a bunch of trouble, that's normal too."

I looked at her skeptically. "You're telling me that all kids who have difficulty reading are part g-" I couldn't even say the word.

"Of course not. But it's a pretty good indicator."

"Look, you've got the wrong girl then." I unhooked my arm from hers and stepped away. "I'm a great reader, top of my class, and I've never been diagnosed as anything other than GT. No ADHD anywhere in me. Sorry."

"Look, I know this isn't exactly an easy thing to accept, but it's true. Do you have any idea which parent might not be blood-related to you?"

"No!" I shouted, getting mad. "They're both related to me so you can shut your face! Look, I don't take kindly to liars, sweet, so I suggest you tell me the truth from here on out. If you can't give that to me then I'll find somebody that can."

Annabeth finally relented and suggested we climb to the top of a hill. "It's got a really nice view of the camp."

So I followed her up. Once we were at the top, I could see the whole layout of the camp. There were tons of cabins arranged in an omega so that they extended all over the camp. There were more campers milling about now, and I could see what looked like a dining pavilion.

It was cool on top of the hill, and we sat in the shadow of a huge pine tree that seemed to glow with its own light, so the sun wasn't beating down on me. It was actually a lot more comfortable than I was used to, and I found myself enjoying the outdoors, which was totally new for me.

"So… tell me about yourself."

I looked at her strangely. "You are an odd duck, you know that?" She didn't say anything, so after a moment I sighed and moved on. "So I live in Texas. I'm sixteen. I have a big red truck which is what everyone who's anyone has in Texas, but I couldn't bring it here because of some seriously messed up rules in the camp." She frowned, but I didn't give her a chance to interrupt.

There was something about Annabeth, she made me feel like she was really listening, and more than that, she made me feel like she actually cared about what I was saying. I found myself telling her everything about my life, well almost everything. I talked about my three little all-natural brothers who I love more than anything, my natural sister who gets on my nerves in an endearing fashion, my school, Jenna, even about my ex-boyfriend, though I only skimmed the surface on that one. By the time I was done, it was late afternoon, and I had just about lost my voice. "Alright, your turn." I finally said.

"Well, I was raised for the first few years of my life by my father. Then he got remarried and my evil stepmother didn't like me bringing monsters around all the time, so I ran away. I made it here with a couple other half-bloods and a satyr. My dad and I are still working on our relationship, but my real mom and I are slightly better off. She's Athena, you see, and she's finally started speaking to me, which is nice. My boyfriend, Percy, has saved the world more than a couple of times, but he won't talk about it if you ask him. He's cute that way. He's the son of Poseidon. Then there's the other major honcho, Jason. He's the son of Jupiter, so he and Percy butt heads a bunch."

"What, I mean, if I was a demigod, not that I am, but if I was, who do you think my parent would be?"

She looked me over seriously, and I gave her kudos for not smiling. I don't think I would have been able to keep a straight face after hearing such a convoluted sentence. "Well, you could be a child of Ares… no offense, but you're kind of hot headed. Or maybe… Apollo? You have Hermes eyebrows, but you've never been caught stealing. Of course, you could always be a child of one of the minor gods. I think that's more likely since you didn't mention ever fighting off monsters."

Just then a conch sounded over the camp and Annabeth leapt to her feet. "Come on. That's dinner. You're going to be sitting with the Hermes kids since he's the god of travelers."

"I thought he was thieves." I said as we jogged down the hill.

"He's that too. And the god of medicine. He actually covers a pretty broad spectrum, but you're with him nonetheless."

At the pavilion, Annabeth introduced me to Connor and Travis, psycho brothers who I'm pretty sure were on drugs. They were so alike they could have passed as identical twins, so I lost track of who was who about two minutes after meeting them. Both boys had crazy curly red hair, arched eyebrows, and matching mischievous grins. They both had the weird leather necklaces on, and matching orange camp shirts. I'm pretty sure that if they wanted to, they could get ready just by looking at each other, no mirrors necessary.

Once Annabeth left, the two started talking ninety miles an hour, leading me over to a table with about twenty other campers assembled around it.

"So who are you?"

"Newbie, eh? Well don't worry, we'll get you sorted."

"We're your councilors for now. But you should get claimed pretty soon."

"Right, that's when your parent on the uh, higher side names you as one of their spawn."

"You're supposed to be claimed when you're thirteen, but obviously that didn't happen."

"You are older than thirteen, right?"

"Duh, look at her. I'd say she's about two years younger than me."

"Wanna make it a bet?"

"You're on. Five bucks."

"Why not go for ten? Unless you're doubting yourself already?"

"No way. Challenge accepted."

"So how about it, girly? How old are you?"

They both turned to me expectantly, and I realized they actually expected an answer. "Oh, uh. Sixteen."

The brother on the right crowed. "Whoo! That's ten bucks!"

"Come on." The other one muttered, "Let's get her filled in."

"Hey, so how'd you make it so long on your own?" They asked; I was beginning to see them as a single entity.

"I'm not like you guys, okay? I don't have a godly parent. Just two human parents."

The Stoll brothers exchanged looks, but were kept from responding by the arrival of the food. It was brought out to us by a bunch of little girls dressed in green and brown. I raised my eyebrows at the brothers. "Um, I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but slavery was abolished from the US like, fifty years ago."

The brothers laughed. "They're wood nymphs."

My eyes widened. "Nymphs?"

"Yeah, they help out at the camp since they live here. It's kinda like a return service for us not killing their trees and all."

"I can't believe this." I managed as the nymphs set the food on our table. "Is this for real? It isn't just some practical joke right?"

The brothers laughed again, "You insult us; our jokes are much cooler than this. I mean, let's get real, Hermes is the god of thieves."

"Right. Hermes." I saw the first table get up and start tossing some of their food into the bonfires that littered the pavilion. "Burnt offerings? Really?"

"Yeah. The gods like the smell."

"The smell. Of burning food." Suddenly, it was just all too much. I stood quickly, muttered some excuse about not being hungry, and ran out of there like Hades himself was after me. Not that I believed in things like that.

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**Please comment, follow, or rate, but don't hate! If you like it, please tell me! If not, you can tell me that too. I'll try to update the story at least once a week, so if you have some ideas, feel free to throw them out there. Thank you all, NinjaB.**


	2. 2 Leo

_**Leo**_

I was late to dinner again, but I knew my cabin wouldn't mind. They were cool with me missing activities. They knew what it was like when you were working on a project. We were all Hephaestus' kids after all.

Anyway, I was dashing through the trees in that awesome way that I do, without tripping on roots or anything when the new girl who Leo the lion tried to eat earlier ran into me. She was going full throttle, so when we collided, we both fell to the ground.

She rolled off of me instantly, apologizing. I laughed at the bits of grass stuck in her hair. "It's fine, don't worry about it." I said, trying to pull them out for her. She flinched away from my touch, but let me pick out the grass after a second try.

"So, a child of Hephaestus, huh? I guess that explains the lion." she said, sitting up.

I grinned at her, "Yeah, sorry about that. What parent are you?"

Her face instantly shut down. "My parents are human." She said flatly.

I sensed it was a touchy subject, so I backed off. I wasn't the best at talking about that stuff anyway. "Oh. So, did you want to go to dinner?"

Alexix winced subtly, I'm not sure if she even knew she did, and shook her head. "I sort of just escaped. You can go on if you want though. I don't mind being alone."

This was an obvious brush off that I ignored. She was new which meant she didn't know about my track record with girlfriends, which was pretty much nonexistent. And she was pretty. Her hair was wildly curly, perfect for catching grass in, and her eyes were a pale, crystal blue. Plus, she was female which made her my kind of girl.

"Do you have a weapon?" She didn't. "Then there's no way I'm leaving you in these woods alone. It's getting dark, and it's only your first day. No offense, but I don't think you're quite ready to handle all that's out here."

"More than I am to handle them." She muttered. I don't think she meant for me to hear, but I did.

"Yeah, organic life forms aren't really my thing either." I stood, brushed off my pants, and offered my only-slightly-oil-covered hand to help her up.

She accepted after only a moment's hesitation. "So, where do you go when you want to be alone?" she asked.

I grinned again, "I was hoping you would ask."

I took her to my workshop, which was pretty rare. It was kind of a private place since I didn't like to show anyone how I got in, but for some reason, it felt right to show the new girl. When I pressed my flaming hand against the stone and the flames snaked along the wall, I expected her to freak out. Instead, she just stiffened a little in shock, and then watched the flames dance up the cave. The door appeared, and I led her into bunker nine.

When I flicked on the lights, I heard her gasp. "No way." Then she was running around to all of my inventions, not touching them, but examining them from every angle. "How'd you program this? Did you build all of these? There's no way this could have gotten off the ground you would have needed—whoa, what does this do? Are you serious? This is so amazing!"

I grinned. Definitely my kind of girl. An hour later, we were sitting on a couple of bean bags talking. It had been a while since I had really been able to talk to anyone without feeling uncomfortable, but with Alexix it was easy. We talked a lot, but it was mostly mechanics, and there's nothing I can talk about more than mechanics. After we exhausted the subject of my inventions, we moved to cars. She had a cherry red Toyota Tacoma at home, and she clearly loved it.

"It's my baby. I was so sad they wouldn't let me bring it. I'm just sure my sister's going to try to drive it and crash into one of the four trees in town."

I laughed, "Where do you live?"

"Texas. It's dry, windy, hot, and flat, but I miss it. I suppose that's sort of pitiful right? I mean I just got here and I'm already complaining about being homesick."

"It's not that weird. I'm from Houston, and I used to love the dry summers. There's no better time for going swimming, and you never had to worry about lightning."

She smiled, pleased that I understood. "Do you drive? You look old enough."

"Yeah, I'm seventeen, but I don't have a car. I normally just get where I'm going in one of these things." I gestured to Argo II.

We were interrupted by a pounding on the cave door. Alexix flinched at the sudden sound, but relaxed when I grinned at her. I opened the cave door and found Jason and Piper standing outside.

"Hey guys."

"Hey Leo." Piper said. At the same time, Jason started in, "You missed dinner."

Piper elbowed him in the side, but he just caught her elbow and pulled her into a hug. I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, I know. Are you two lovebirds planning on coming in or did you just knock to rub in my single status. Either way's cool; I just want to know."

"We're looking for a new camper. Her name's Alex or Lexi or something like that." Jason said.

I tossed a glance over my shoulder at Alexix who had buried her face in her hands. "Alexix? Why?"

"You know where she is?" Piper asked, "Everyone's really worried about her."

"I'm right here." Alexix muttered, moving up to stand beside me.

Piper looked relieved; Jason just looked irritated. "Didn't anyone tell you not to go running into the woods? The Stoll brothers are freaking out."

"Sorry." She said, rolling her eyes. "I guess I lost track of time."

"Well, come on." Piper said impatiently. "You're going to miss the bonfire."

"And we can't have that, can we?" She muttered sarcastically, but she followed them out.

"You coming man?" Jason asked.

I shut everything down and followed them back to civilization.

The bonfire changed colors according to the mood of the campers and today it was tall and red. I met up with my group and checked in. Apparently everyone was talking about Alexix, there had to be at least fifty different rumors circulating, but no one could get her name right.

Across the circle, I saw the girl in question being chewed out by the Stoll brothers. She tossed her hands up in the air and moved her lips rapidly, but the boys didn't take much notice. I'm not great at reading people, but I could tell she was irritated. Then she caught my eye and grinned. _Organic life forms._ She mouthed, rolling her eyes. I grinned back at her.

Chiron got everyone's attention by stomping his hoof against a stone. "Alright campers. I would like to introduce a new camper joining us tonight. Miss Alexix Storm."

Alexix stood and gave an awkward little wave before quickly sitting back down. Chiron made a few more announcements, something about not blowing up any more toilets and how _someone _had stolen something and needed to give it back (this was said with a significant look at the Stoll brothers who put on their totally unconvincing innocent faces), but no one was really paying attention. Everyone was telling their version of the new girl.

When I asked, Michael was convinced that she had taken on all three furies as a child and was only pretending not to believe in the gods now because she was suffering from PTSD. Harley said that the PTSD thing was far-fetched and totally unbelievable. The truth, according to him, was that she wasn't a half-blood at all, but secretly a witch who was sent here in disguise to take down Camp Half-Blood from the inside.

I wanted to find Alexix after the campfire songs were sung and all the s'mores had been devoured. I wanted to tell her that I didn't believe the rumors that I actually thought she was pretty cool. I wanted to maybe even flirt a little, but she disappeared the minute it was over, and no matter how hard I looked, I couldn't spot her. I resolved to talk to her first thing in the morning then went to my cabin and called the lights out.

**Hey guys, I'm working on future chapters now, but I can't come up for a suitable name for the life of me. Anyone got a tough-chick name suitable for a child of Hermes? Or a name for a male child of Ares? Please post it in the reviews if you do. Also, I'd like to give a super shout-out to Guest1234567890 for being the first one to comment. Thanks a million, NinjaB.**


	3. 3 Alexix

The cabin wasn't bad. The brothers seemed really shocked that I hadn't been claimed at the campfire, but assured me that it would probably happen tomorrow. I got the bottom bunk of one of the twelve bunk beds scattered around the room, which they said didn't used to happen. Apparently, in the past, if you were one of the many unclaimed students, you had to sleep on the floor. As the story goes, Percy saved the gods' butt one time and forced them into a pact where they had to claim all of their children by the time they turned thirteen.

"But I'm sixteen." I pointed out.

The brothers exchanged glances. "Yeah, well you're kind of unusual."

"An anomaly."

"A glitch."

"A difference."

"An unknown factor."

"A freak."

"You know," I cut in, "it's not that I don't love being called these many barely concealed insults, because I do, really, but could we get back to the history of the camp?"

"Oh, okay." They said.

"Sure. Chiron's the director and once you're claimed you can ask to receive a quest, and then you pick two people to go with you and head off." The other one said.

"It's great fun, but you might want to stay here a bit first." They took turns speaking.

"Yeah, no one out in the real world has practical jokes like we do."

Then they left me on my bunk. My duffel bag was sitting on the end. I quickly went through it, making sure my mom had packed everything. She hadn't. Half of my clothes were my little sister's, and the remaining clothes wouldn't last me a week.

With a sigh, I flopped back on the bed and thought over my day. At some point, the twins called for a lights out, and the cabin went dark, but I lay awake for much longer than that. Because, despite my best intentions, I was starting to believe, and that scared me more than any metal lion could.

The next morning, I was the first one in the shower, which was nice. Apparently, all the Hermes kids liked to sleep. When I came out, I saw one of them digging through my stuff. All the other kids in the cabin watched, amused, to see what I would do.

I got that this was a new girl test, so I treated it the way I thought Jenna would. Rolling my eyes, I tucked my still-dripping hair behind my ear and snuck up behind him. I managed to get right behind the kid without him noticing anything. He did notice, though, when I leaned up on my tippy toes and shouted in his ear, "Can I help you find something?"

He just about jumped out of his skin and fell on his butt. When he saw it was me he turned bright red and started stammering out apologies. I just laughed with everyone else in the cabin. Shaking my head, I let him off the hook, "I get that you're the god of thieves child, but don't go through my stuff, alright?"

He nodded shakily, and then darted into the bathroom with his face still burning up. I laughed again and finished getting ready. I really wanted to head to the library to start learning everything I could about the gods and demigods and powers and who I could possibly belong to, but the twins said I wouldn't have a free hour until two.

They kept my day filled. First we had Arts and Crafts, which was way more than the dried macaroni necklaces I was expecting. Instead we were carving a sculpture out of marble. Real marble. Then we moved to the rock wall that happened to include lava, falling rocks, and a bunch of earthquake like tremors. I only made it halfway, but it was fun. After that, we had archery taught by Chiron, who was pretty cool once you got over his horse half, but I was clearly not meant to be given arrows. Fortunately, Chiron was a good sport and fast on his hooves. He was able to stop most of the stray arrows headed his way.

We broke for lunch, but I skipped to go to the library. There was this red chicken lady there that was really no help finding books even though she seemed to have memorized them. I learned a lot about the twelve major gods and a bunch of minor gods that I had never heard of, but then Josh, the boy I had scared out of my duffel bag earlier, caught me and told me it was time to spar.

He led me to the arena, which was big enough to host all of the concerts I had ever seen at the same time, and gave me a sword. It was shorter than the ones most of the others were using, but it weighed a ton.

The twins split up, with one helping teach the group and the other just teaching me. Awesome.

"Start with your blade out in front of you, like this." He struck a pose, and I did my best to imitate it.

After showing me a few of the basic moves, he started sparring with me. As usual, I immediately messed up.

"You need to lift it higher." He said, whapping me in the side with the flat of his blade.

I scowled. "Again."

He lunged, and this time I managed to avoid his blade by stepping in and punching him in the face. He tipped over with a startled "Hey!" but I danced out of his reach before he could get back up.

I heard laughter from the other side of the arena. Glancing up, I realized that the other Stoll was watching. I gave him a wave, grinning.

"We're practicing SWORD fighting." My Stoll called up from the ground. I looked back down, his lip was split, and I could tell it was going to swell up later.

"I fought you didn't I? And we both had swords."

"You need to learn fencing. Punching people isn't considered fencing." He insisted.

"You know, it isn't _my_ father who is known for craftiness." But I relented, "Alright. Show me how to fight."

After a while, I was getting kind of good, but I obviously wasn't a child of Ares. The sword was just an awkward weapon in my hands. I would much rather be punching someone, but according to the brothers, that wasn't allowed.

After fencing, we moved to the pond to practice canoeing. When I heard the orders, I raised my eyebrows in disbelief. "Canoeing? Really? How is that going to help us fight monsters?"

"Sometimes our quests take us over water." Isabel, a small blonde girl with the wickedly arched eyebrows said, "It's important to know how the boat works."

As it turned out, canoeing wasn't a whole lot more than the Hermes kids messing around. A couple people knocked over each other's boats, and everyone got wet. The Hephaestus kids were there too, though they tried to act more serious. One or two of them were testing an invention near the shore while others were doing 'team building' exercises out in their canoes.

I spotted Leo standing on the docks and swam towards him. I had almost reached him, when I saw them. Two dead girls were at the bottom of the lake, their hair drifting with the movement of the water. As though this wasn't freaky enough, one of them caught my eye and _waved_ at me. They both kicked off the sand and swam up to me. When they were closer, I realized that their skin was green, matching both their eyes and the algae.

"Ooh… we haven't seen one of you in ages."

"Why haven't you frozen us yet?"

"The last one did that, he was so rude."

"You're much nicer than he was. You should stay."

"Oh do, we haven't had company in so long."

"Percy never visits anymore, either."

"Another rude one."

They started tugging at my clothes, pulling me under the water.

"No…stop." I spluttered, but they kept at it, tugging at my arms and hair until I went under. I heard a devilish giggle that sent chills down my spine.

"Come on little cousin, it'll be fun."

I kicked free for a moment and broke the surface, sweet air rushing into my lungs, "Leo!" I cried. Then the girls dragged me back under.

The water made everything hazy, but I saw Leo look up in alarm. Dropping whatever was in his hands, he did a really smooth dive into the water towards me. My lungs ached from the strain of holding my breath, and my vision was clouding. I kicked at the girls, but the water slowed my movements until they were useless.

I thought I saw something really shiny break through the murk, but I can't be sure. The next thing I knew, someone was tugging me back up towards the light at the surface. All of the air was gone, and my lungs were filled with lake water.

When I finally came up, Leo was right next to me. He grabbed my shoulders and looked me over for any open wounds while I tried to cough up lake water in a way that wasn't totally repulsive.

"Are you alright? What happened?" he started swimming, dragging me towards the dock. I was worried we'd run into those girls again, but they seemed to have disappeared.

When we reached the dock, I pulled myself up with only a little bit of Leo's help and sat there embarrassed while he pulled himself up. My hair had fallen loose of its ponytail during the struggle, and the ponytail itself had disappeared with the girls. I could feel myself blushing, and couldn't meet Leo's eyes.

"Sorry." I blurted at the same time he said, "What was that?"

I blushed a little more and answered him. "I don't honestly know. I thought they were dead and the next thing I knew they were trying to drown me. I'm really sorry."

Leo's forehead was wrinkled up. "Why would you possibly be apologizing?"

I'm pretty sure my face couldn't have gotten any hotter without bursting into flame. "I guess I'm not much of a hero, huh? Can't even go swimming without nearly dying."

"It's not your fault." Leo reassured me, "I've never seen naiads act like that."

I blinked water out of my eyes, sure that I had misheard him. "I'm sorry, naiads?"

"Yeah, they're kind of like the wood nymphs, only they're water spirits. They're real sweet on Percy, but I've never seen them… attack someone. That was really weird."

Awesome. I was the anomaly again. I wished I could go back to his cave. Talking in there was so natural. It was easier than talking to Annabeth, where I always felt like I was being judged. It was even easier than talking to Jenna, but now he saw me as a freak, or, if not that, then as someone who needed to be rescued. I'm not sure which was worse.

He had picked up his tools again and was tinkering with something. I saw the same glitter I had seen when drowning, and used it as a subject change. "What kind of metal is that? I don't think I've seen it before."

His eyes lit up the way they had when we were talking about his inventions yesterday. "It's celestial bronze. It's super rare, but the best metal for making weapons. It's one of the only things that will kill monsters."

My eyebrows shot up because, once again, I found myself three steps behind everyone else. "Monsters? You mean like the boogeyman and stuff? I hate to break it to you, but I stopped believing in that sort of thing a while ago."

Leo laughed, he did that a lot, and I liked it. He had a warm sort of laugh, the kind that seemed to bubble up from his toes before lighting up his eyes. "We'll see about that. Are you doing anything tonight?"

I blinked at his sudden subject change. "Um… I don't… think so, but it's really up to the Stoll brothers. We do that campfire thing every night don't we?" I spotted the Stoll brothers headed towards us, waving at me to come with the group to the next activity.

"Yeah. So get Annabeth to hook you up with a weapon, and I'll meet you there, alright?"

My mind froze. Was he asking me out on a date? The last time something like this had happened it had turned out horribly, and I had only known Leo for _maybe_ twenty-six hours. Despite my inner protests, I found myself nodding at Leo as he grinned, stood, and walked away.

"Great. I gotta pack up my group now. We have a super fun arts and crafts time coming up. Can't be late." He said as he left.

Sitting on the dock by myself, my brain finally achieved control again. "No." I whispered, but as it always seemed to go, my words were too little, too late.

**Hey, guys! I hope you're liking the story so far... I promise there will be more action in the future chapters. Thanks, little sis, for acting as my Beta Reader and encouraging me to keep writing, and thank you smarty-wanna-party for favorite-ing my story. For all you other readers, please R&R (I hope that means Read and Review, but I'm not sure). Your comments mean a lot to me. Until the next update, ~NinjaB.**


	4. 4 Leo

**_4 Leo_**

I was looking forward to my little half-date with Alexix. I'm not sure it counted as a full date, since I was planning on taking her out to hunt monsters, but I was looking forward to it anyways. Usually girls stayed away from me like I was the black plague. I'd even had girls run from me; although that had only happened once… or twice… okay, a grand total of seven times, but who's counting?, after I asked them out. It's not like I minded, I understood that no one really wanted to date the Mexican grease monkey. I was fine with that. It didn't keep me from asking girls out, I seemed to have a penchant for rejection, but Alexix really seemed to enjoy hanging out with me.

There was just one problem; she hadn't been claimed. The rule was half-bloods were supposed to be claimed by the time they were thirteen, but Alexix was convinced she was one hundred percent human. And because she was already sixteen, it certainly looked like she was right. There was a quick and easy way to find out, but I guess no one was willing to see if she would bleed with the bronze or burn up after drinking some nectar. The fact that she could get into the camp should have been enough, but some people are just picky about proof.

Since she hadn't been claimed, it left me wondering who her godly parent was. There were lots of gods out there, and honestly, it didn't matter that much to me what kind of blood she had, but if she was Hephaestus, it would make us siblings. I would hate to find out that the first girl to look at me twice was my little sister.

I think my current brothers and sisters could tell that I was distracted because they moved through the arts and crafts center like they were stepping on broken glass. They pretty much worked without me until the conch sounded out, and I nearly jumped out of my skin.

We lined up. Traditionally, it was oldest camper to newest camper, but I had been voted into my position, so I was at the head of the line. I headed out to the pavilions looking for Alexix, but Hephaestus filed in before Hermes, so I couldn't find her.

Dinner was great, as usual, but I might as well have thrown my whole plate in the fire because it all tasted like ash in my mouth. I couldn't keep the worries from my mind, though I did my best to hide it from my cabin mates. What if she didn't like the half-date? What if she was chosen tonight and we had to cancel the date? What if she got hurt in the woods and hated me forever because of it?

The bonfire couldn't have come fast enough. The songs went by in a blur; I couldn't have told you what they were except that they seemed to take forever, yet not long enough. Soon, all the s'mores had been eaten and the cabins were dismissed. I told Jake, my second in command, to take everyone back to the cabin and call lights out by eleven. He gave me a strange look but agreed. Then there was nothing left for me to do but find Alexix.

Walking over to the Hermes side of the fire, I dragged my fingers through the flame, sending up a quick prayer to Hephaestus. _Please Dad, if there's any justice in this world, let me have some luck with this organic life form. Don't claim her as yours._

I probably could have worried a little bit more, but then I spotted Alexix and all negative thoughts flew from my mind. She had changed from the wet clothes she was in earlier- which looked great on her- to a drier outfit- which looked better. She had a light blue tank top on with a denim jacket over it and shorts long enough to be decent, but short enough to stop any guy's heart. When she saw me, she grinned, like I was the one making _her _night worthwhile.

"Hey," I said, walking up. _Cool Valdez. _I congratulated myself, _very cool._

"Hey." She said, standing up to meet me.

"You get cleared with your councilors?" I looked at the Stoll brothers who had lingered a bit longer than everyone else and were sneaking glances at us.

"Yup. Picked out a weapon too, although, I'm a little concerned as to why I could possibly need a weapon. We're not sparring are we?"

I grinned at her. "You'll see. Come on."

I led her into the woods at an easy pace, sure that something would jump out at us if we just waited long enough.

"So what weapon did you pick?" I asked her, trying to sense the shape of the celestial bronze I felt on her.

"Oh you know, just your basic M-16 with flame throwing capabilities." She said coolly.

I looked at her in surprise, "Really? I thought you were more of a Mossberg 500 sort of gal."

She laughed than pulled out her blade. It was a nice knife, about the length of my arm, with a blue and gold cord wrapped around the hilt. "It's nice." I said, and she grinned, proud of herself.

Suddenly, she looked around. "Wait." She said, snagging the bottom of my sleeve. I paused and she turned a full circle.

"Isn't your cave that way?" She pointed to the left, back the way we had just come from.

I was surprised she could tell directions so well, it was getting dark, and the shadows the trees cast made everything seem darker. "Yeah, actually, it is, but we're not going to my cave."

"Oh," Her face fell a little, but picked back up when I started walking again. "So where are we going?"

There was a slight rustle up ahead, and I grinned in anticipation, "You said you didn't believe in monsters right?" She nodded suspiciously. "Well, you might want to keep your knife out because you're about to meet some."

Her eyes widened as the rustling in front of us increased, and she moved closer so that she was standing slightly behind me. Then something leapt out of the bushes, and she flinched. Unfortunately, she soon realized who our attacker was and started laughing so hard she nearly fell over. "Leo…" she managed, gasping for air, "that- that's a bunny."

I looked at the small brown rabbit and felt my face fall. I secretly hoped that it could breathe fire or something, but I knew it was just a bunny.

Before I could react, something else jumped out from the bushes, and this was no bunny. A huge centipede, with legs at least half as tall as me, devoured the bunny in seconds, tearing it apart with pincers that were easily the size of my arm and razor sharp. I heard Alexix give a little gasp behind me; her laughter was gone.

The monster lifted itself up onto its back fifty legs and waved its torso slowly back and forth as though it was trying to catch our scent. I didn't give it the chance. With a yell, I ran forward and caught its middle with my knife. I had hoped for it to be a big, macho move, but the centipede's stomach was covered with a thick, shell-like armor that I hadn't anticipated. My sword bounced off harmlessly.

Then Alexix was there beside me, rolling under the creature while slicing off legs left and right.

The monster roared and set its body back down forcefully enough that it would have crushed me if I hadn't flopped to the ground. Alexix was still chopping off legs, but there were too many for her to have much effect. As I watched her, she did a somersault between two legs and came up swinging.

The monster roared again, and whirled lightning fast to catch up Alexix in its pincers. It got _thisclose_ to eating her, but she leapt back at the last second. Unfortunately, her foot caught on a tree root, and she went flying backwards, her knife disappearing somewhere in the gloom.

I decided that this was probably enough to convince her that monsters were real and that if I didn't go all ninja glowy hands soon, someone might actually get hurt. I shouted to get the beast's attention, then, when it whirled to face me, I lit up like a candle. I always felt nervous with the flame, ever since my mom died it's felt more like a curse than a gift, but this time I was confident. The centipede swallowed the flame and exploded like a popcorn seed. The goop got everywhere, but it dissolved into gold dust after a minute.

With a grin, I walked over to Alexix who had found her knife and was wiping the blade off on the grass. She had a couple of small scratches on her arms and face that I felt kind of bad about, but overall, I thought it was a great first half date. "So," I asked casually, "do you believe in monsters now?"

She looked up at me in amazement. "Leo, honey, right now it wouldn't matter if you told me that the sky was really neon orange and it rained gummy bears. I wouldn't doubt you for a second."

My smile grew, and she grinned back. That was exactly what I had hoped for.

The next morning, Piper was waiting for me outside my cabin. "Leo Valdez, have you lost your mind?" she demanded, hands on her hips. I knew that whatever was coming next wasn't going to be pretty, so I sent my cabin to breakfast ahead of me and offered to walk with Piper.

"I don't want to walk with you!" she yelled, "I wouldn't want to risk being eaten by a hydra!"

I winced and glanced around. Fortunately, no one else was up yet. Piper could yell all she wanted out here. "I suppose you heard about my half date then, huh?"

Piper's eyes rolled back into her head. "Leo, I swear you will be the death of me. There is no such thing as a half date. Even if there was, why would you not consult me, your best friend and child of Aphrodite, before you went on one? I could have set you up with someone."

"What's wrong with Alexix?" I wanted to know, maybe it wasn't a great time according to Piper's standards, but I had enjoyed myself, and from the glitter in Alexix's eyes when I walked her back to cabin 12, she'd had fun too.

Piper sighed, "Well, aside from the fact that she calls everyone 'honey', 'child', 'love', 'sweet', or some combination of those, nothing's _wrong _with her, but no one knows who, or rather whose, she is yet. What if she ends up as your sister? Plus, what kind of person takes a girl out to fight a monster on a date? She's only been here two days; she doesn't even believe in the gods yet. You bringing her back all bloody was not romantic."

I winced, starting to doubt myself. I had thought I was doing alright, but Piper had some really good points. I couldn't tell if she was using her magic voice on me or not, but she was starting to persuade me. I shoved my hands back through my hair with a sigh. "What would you have had me do?"

"Go out with someone else!" Piper exclaimed, "There are loads of heroines at this camp who would love to date you."

I looked at her skeptically, sure that I would have better luck catching our resident wood nymphs out on the track. "Piper, you probably haven't noticed because of my awesome looks and superior charm, but I'm not really the guy girls are dreaming of. I know it's hard to believe, but Alexix is the first girl in a while that I've been interested in. She really is my type of girl, pardon the cliché."

Piper rolled her eyes and moved to sit on our porch. I followed her, making sure our alarm system was disarmed by jumping on the first step a couple times. "You mean she isn't missing any limbs, right?"

I thought about the way Alexix's legs had looked in her shorts the night before, the way she somersaulted under the monster… she definitely wasn't missing any body parts.

"Leo…" She moaned, catching my slight grin, "You're killing me. Let me set you up with a girl. Please? I've been dying to do this for ages. And if I find a girl for you, you won't have to take her monster hunting."

Before I could brush her off for being an idiot, Jason rounded the corner. His hair was wet, like he just got out of the shower, and a lot of water seemed to have dripped onto his shirt, but there was steely resolve in his eyes that frightened me a little. Piper leapt to her feet when she saw him. "Jason!"

He swept her up in a hug, and I was the third wheel again. When the two were done with their Kodak moment, Jason turned to me. "Hey Leo, how's it going? Heard you got yourself a date."

I just looked at Piper, "Does everyone know?"

She shrugged innocently, "Lacy saw you two coming out of the woods. No gossip travels faster than secret lovers."

I threw my hands up in the air, "We're not secret lovers! It wasn't even a date! Maybe I don't like her that way, alright? Now get off my back. I have to go eat."

I left them standing in the shadow of the Hephaestus house and marched off towards the pavilion. I was done with the organic life forms for the moment.

So, what do you think? Do Alexix and Leo make a good couple, or is their relationship going to stop before it can start? Please R&R I love seeing your comments on the story. I probably won't be able to post anything next week because I'll be out-of-town, but I promise to upload the next chapter as soon as I get back.


	5. Chapter 5

5 Alexix

I decided to forgive my mom. Yes, she had forced me to come to this camp against my will, but not all of the people here were horrid. There was Travis and Connor, and Annabeth wasn't so bad. And then there was Leo…

Maybe I wouldn't mind staying here the summer. Maybe I might even thank my parents when I got back to Texas, well... maybe I wouldn't take it that far.

I snuck out of my cabin early to check out the library again. Everyone was so certain that I was a half-blood, but I still wondered if there couldn't be a human hero. Ella was in the library, squawking away as usual. Annabeth had told me yesterday that Ella was a harpy that had been rescued on a quest (by none other than the famous Percy Jackson).

Now quests seemed interesting. I hoped I could go on one. After pulling out a couple of books I thought had potential, I settled into study mode. I had one hour to search the pages before breakfast. No sooner had I set my books down, though, than Jason strode in the door.

Jason was the blonde boy who had come to get me out of Leo's cave the other night. He was alright looking, I suppose, but blonde haired blue eyed children weren't really my thing anymore. I was pretty sure he was Piper's boyfriend anyway, and the last thing I needed at this camp was to get mixed up in relationship drama.

Ignoring him, I opened my first book. It was about Helen of Troy who was a drama queen if I ever saw one. I started skimming the chapters, and I saw Jason pull out the chair next to me out of the corner of my eye. I flinched, and looked over at him.

"Hey." He said casually. He nodded towards my book. "Whatcha reading?"

I told him, and then tried to ignore him. This is usually enough of a hint for most guys, but Jason just stayed there watching me. Despite my effort to focus, he was a distraction. He kept clearing his throat, scuffing his feet on the carpet, popping his gum. The words blurred in front of my eyes, the way they always did when I was irritated. Eventually he spoke again, "So, what happened to your arms?"

I looked down and saw the rows of tiny scratches I had gotten from fighting off the centipede with Leo last night. Talk about exciting! That boy was just full of surprises. Standard date: take girl to movies. Leo: take girl to almost get eaten by monsters. Plus, he was a mechanic, a hero, and as Jenna would say 'a fireman' meaning he was smoking hot. Really, there was no competition. "Oh, nothing."

"Did that nothing involve Leo in the woods?" he asked coolly. My eyes widened. "How do you know…?"

He gestured to the door, "Wanna go outside and talk? Ella tends to repeat everything she hears."

I winced and got up to walk with him. "So, you and Leo, huh?" Jason asked, once we were outside. He had led me to a small hallway-like area between cabins. It was empty apart from us and a large rain barrel that was oddly full, even though there were no gutters leading to it.

"I, um…" I couldn't think of anything to say.

"It's cool, just so long as you know that Leo doesn't think of things that way."

I really hoped Jason couldn't see just how painful those words were. I tried to act cool. "What are you talking about?"

"I heard about your little impromptu date in the woods. I hope you know he doesn't actually like you though. We talked last night and… well, you seem nice. I wouldn't want you to get hurt."

I think my jaw actually dropped. "Are you kidding me? Who do you think you are?"

He stepped in, reaching for me like he was going to give me a hug, but I shoved him away. "I've been at this camp a total of two days!" another shove. "I don't even know you," another shove, "but somehow you, sweet child, think you have some right," shove, "to tell me that not only have I gone out on a date" shove, "as though I would be as easy as that," shove. "But that my 'date' doesn't even like me? The nerve!" the final shove sent him tripping over himself backwards. He caught his balance by bracing himself against the rain barrel, but just as he was getting his feet under him, it tipped over, making him fall on his butt completely soaked.

The scene was so hilarious that I couldn't help the grin that crossed my face. An icy breeze shot across my skin, cooling my rage. I helped him up with a rueful smile. "Sorry. That was mean."

He shook his head, "It's my fault. That was kind of tactless huh? Sorry. How about we start over?"

Jason leaned up against the library wall, looking just like an Abercrombie model. A very wet Abercrombie model.

"Did he tell you that we went on a quest together?" I shook my head. "Well, we did. So I kind of feel like I know Leo. He's like a brother to me. He's a great guy, but he's not into relationships. Trust me, if you're looking for someone to date, I could have Piper hook you up with someone. The Aphrodite cabin is really into matchmaking, but Leo… I don't think he's ever actually had a girlfriend, though you couldn't tell by the way he flirts."

Was my heart breaking? Just a little, but I made sure my face was steely. There was no way I was going to let Jason see me hurting. "Who else knows?" I asked, hoping I didn't look like a complete idiot for even contemplating Leo.

"Piper does, her friend Lacy is the one who saw you guys coming out of the woods last night. Lacy's kind of a gossip, but if you want, I could probably talk her out of telling anyone."

I nodded numbly. I couldn't believe I had been so stupid. This was just like Nick all over again. Was there a godly parent for kids who were constantly played? The ones that couldn't help but fall for the wrong people?

I suppose it was my turn to say something, but I thought if I opened my mouth, I would start crying. I was saved by one of the Stoll brothers coming round the corner. It was the one that had sparred with me yesterday, Connor? His lip was swollen, just as I had guessed.

"You messin' with my little sister, Jason?" he asked, taking in the scene. He walked over to me and wrapped his arm around my shoulders in a way that was both comforting and protective. He waggled his eyebrows suggestively, "Is there something I should be telling Piper?"

Jason raised his hands defensively. "Dude, look at me. I'm soaked. You should be protecting me from her."

Connor grinned. "Yeah, we Hermes kids are like that. Now if you don't mind me cutting in, I have to talk to Alexix."

"Sure thing." Jason pushed himself off the wall with a nod in my direction, "See you later."

Once he was gone, Connor let go of me and took his place on the wall. "So, little sister, this is an intervention."

I raised my eyebrows shoving all thoughts- well, most of them anyway- aside. "Um, what exactly do I need an intervention for? And why are you calling me little sister?" I gasped, excited, "Was I claimed? Am I a Hermes kid?"

Connor laughed. "Easy, easy. You haven't been claimed yet. Trust me; you'll know when you have. Little sister's just a nickname. The intervention is because you haven't come to a meal in the last two days."

I cringed. "I'm not really hungry."

Connor raised an eyebrow.

"Uh… I don't like barbecue?" I tried again.

"They say third times the charm." He suggested.

"I don't like people either." All the excuses were true, but Connor just looked at me skeptically.

"Well, you're coming to breakfast, whether you like it or not."

I rolled my eyes. "Look, hon, I would love to eat breakfast with you and the cabin, but I don't eat breakfast, and I'm in the middle of something right now anyway."

He looked around as though trying to figure out what I was in the middle of. I gestured impatiently to the library doors. "It's a research project. I'm trying to see…" I trailed off, not willing to admit my real purpose.

"Who your parent might be?" he asked. His voice was gentler now, like he sensed that I probably wouldn't want to talk about it. "You know, I may not be a history book, but the Hermes cabin used to be filled with kids like you. We might have some answers."

I sighed. "Fine. What's for breakfast?"

He grinned and led me out to the pavilion.

Connor wasn't lying when he said they had answers. I didn't eat anything at breakfast, which earned me a look from Connor, but it saved me from having to go to the brazier. I did start talking to people though. It turns out that not too long ago; most kids were unclaimed because only the major gods had cabins. When Percy changed that, the population decreased, but the kids knew what sort of traits each cabin had. When they found out I was searching for my parent, they all jumped in with questions.

"You said you were top of your class, right?"

"Um... yeah?"

"Don't be an idiot; she's not Athena, look at her eyes."

"Look at me?"

I showed everyone my eyes, which were a bright blue, and they all agreed that I wasn't Athena.

"Are you good at archery?"

"I've never really tried…"

"Do you like to build things?"

"Uh, sort of."

The questions were endless. Did I have a green thumb? Had I noticed anything unusual growing up? What kind of monsters did I fight as a child? They didn't believe me when I told them I had never been attacked, but by the end of breakfast it had been determined that I wasn't Athena, Apollo, Zeus, Hades, or Poseidon's child.

Connor caught up with me as we headed off towards the Arts and Crafts cabin. "See, breakfast wasn't so bad; although, you need to eat sometime or you'll pass out."

I just rolled my eyes. "You sound like my mother. I'll eat something at lunch, alright? The cabin was really helpful… though I noticed no one eliminated the Hermes cabin."

Connor just shrugged. "They were being polite. You probably don't belong with us."

I grinned at his brutal honesty, "Alright, I'll check that god off my list."

"You have a list?" Connor asked, sounding impressed that anyone would have a shred of organization in them and still bunk under his roof.

"Yes, sweet child, I have a list. Now shut up and teach me how to use this sandblaster."

Working with heavy machinery was fun, but my enjoyment was cut short by Mr. Percy Jackson himself. He showed up at the door and talked with Travis for a minute, looking at me, and then he walked back outside.

Travis moved over to where I was blasting our marble bust with sand. "Hey, Alexix!" he shouted over the roar of the machine.

I cut the engine and looked at him. "Yes?"

"Chiron wants you up at the big house. Apparently, there's going to be a meeting. Connor, you're coming too." He turned to the rest of the campers. "Guys, you have a free hour, I guess. Try not to blow anything up, alright? We'll meet back up at the stables at ten."

I let out a sigh, wishing I could shoot some sand at Percy, and then stalked out of the cabin flanked by the Stoll brothers.

**Hey guys! I'm extending an invitation RIGHT NOW to all you aspiring authors out there. If you've read my story (and by chapter 5 I hope you have) use your amazing writing talents to comment and review!**

** I hope you caught this, but in case you didn't, this chapter overlaps the end of chapter four which is why Jason is all wet when Leo sees him. Just wanted to point that out. Thanks to all you readers and even more so to you commenters, I'll be updating again soon!**

**~NinjaB.**


	6. 6 Leo

6 Leo

When Annabeth got me for the meeting, my cabin was in the arena. I was kicking serious butt too, but when duty calls… "See ya guys. Keep fighting."

"Any idea what the meeting's about?" I asked Annabeth.

She gave me a look like she couldn't believe what an idiot I was. She had a lot of looks like that. I called this particular look number seven. "Three guesses." Before I had a chance to guess, she told me the answer. "There's been another prophesy, and this time it looks like it involves Alexix."

"You understand how the three guesses thing works, right? It normally means that a person gets three guesses before you tell them the answer."

She shot me look number fourteen. I have that effect on most people; Alexix was the first person in a while to make it through a conversation without rolling her eyes at me. "Just get to the big house, would you? I have to go get Clarisse."

She walked away, muttering, and I grinned after her. Then I headed off to the big house wondering what the latest prophesy would be.

When I got there, most of the leaders of the other cabins were there, but only the big twelve got to sit around the Ping-Pong table. This included Percy, Annabeth, Clarisse, Piper and Jason- who were both whispering and looking at Alexix, standing uncomfortably behind the Stoll brothers- and your favorite flame-throwing hero to name a few.

I tried to catch Alexix's eye, but she wouldn't look at me, almost as though she was intentionally avoiding my gaze. I thought back to Piper's talk this morning and wondered if she had anything to do with this. I hoped I could trust her more than that, but the thought still made me see red. I ground my teeth together to keep my cool. The last thing I needed to do was burst into flame at the Ping-Pong table.

Chiron clopped in a few minutes after Annabeth arrived, making the group complete and beginning the meeting. "Heroes, thank you for gathering on such short notice. Especially those of you who are not quite accustomed to this sort of thing." He didn't look at Alexix, but he didn't have to. Everyone else did. She looked uncomfortably down at her feet as Chiron went on. "Our oracle, Rachel, had a, shall we say, interesting fit today, and it seems we have another quest before us."

A ripple went through everyone gathered, well, through most of us. The kids from the Hypnos cabin were doing their part by not snoring too loudly. A new quest was huge news. Especially if the prophesy came before the hero asked for Rachel's green gas skills.

"Who's it for?"

"What's the prophesy say?"

"How do we even know that this one's for us? Couldn't it be for someone, like, twenty years from now?"

"Where's Rachel?"

"Yeah, I didn't know she was back yet."

"Who's going to get the quest?"

Chiron stomped his hoof again. "I'm not sure who will get the quest; however, it is important that you push your campers as hard as you can in case we have another impending war on our hands. The prophesy itself is…. Ah, but I believe Rachel can explain it better herself."

Rachel Elizabeth Dare walked in with her entourage carrying her stool and Kool-Aid. To me, walking around with a group of people all the time would have been irritating, but I guess when your dad's famous, you get used to that sort of thing.

Rachel waved to Annabeth, and then turned to the rest of us. Before she said anything, her eyes rolled back into her head and she swooned. Her minions caught her and set her on her school as her voice transported us to different worlds. I'm not sure what everyone else saw, but when I heard the prophesy, it took me back to my mom's garage.

There was the workbench with the tools scattered all over the place, a huge car battery sat in the middle as though someone had decided the place needed a centerpiece. My mom's coworker was standing there, tinkering with something, her green apron smeared with grease. She raised her head and spoke in a chilling voice:

_Three half-bloods, one of frozen vein_

_Shall bring old hate to light again_

_They'll battle love and charity_

_To slay the misplaced deity_

_And just when things are growing warm_

_A death brought from a father's scorn_

_They'll reconnect the once proud teams_

_Succeed or fail because of dreams_

Then my vision cleared and I was sitting at the Ping-Pong table again. Everyone else was blinking their own visions away, and Rachel was swaying on her stool, drinking Kool-Aid with a shaky hand. Chiron cleared his throat, but before he could speak, Annabeth jumped in.

"What does it mean we're supposed to slay a deity? That doesn't make any sense. You can't kill a god." She stood up and started pacing muttering things about frozen gods and making plans. Her statement opened the floodgates of other children's questions.

"It didn't say anything about when this was going to happen, why do you think it's us?"

"What does it mean by frozen vein? Are we going to have to go up north again?"

"What old hate are we bringing back?"

"Shouldn't we just kill whoever the prophesy's about? I mean if they're fighting love and charity, they're obviously on the wrong team, right?"

Chiron had to stomp his hooves for a third time for everyone's attention, and honestly, I didn't know how much more the floor could take.

"The prophesy was not clear, but that was anticipated. As for who the quest was meant for, I believe the young lady has graced us with her presence."

There was hushed muttering as everyone tried to figure out who he was talking about, but since we were only getting the prophesy now, the answer was pretty obvious. The last person to figure it out was Alexix herself. When the room was quiet, she looked up. Her eyes widened in response to everyone's stare. I grinned as she turned bright red.

"What, you don't think it's _me_ do you? That's ridiculous. I- I just got here. There's no way I could go on a quest."

"You don't have to accept the quest." Chiron reassured her.

She just turned a darker shade of scarlet. "Right. It's just that if I deny it, my fate will be totally ruined. No pressure." My grin widened, but she didn't see it. She was looking at Chiron.

"I'm just asking; how could you possibly know it's me? I mean, it doesn't make any sense. I'm obviously not an important half-blood. You're horse half was the first strange thing to ever happen to me, and I'm not even sure how you know I'm a half-blood at all. Plus, the prophesy says the hero's supposed to have a frozen vein. I'm not sure what that means, but I'm from Texas, so the chances of my veins freezing are pretty slim."

She paused for a moment and the room was silent. Her color cooled, and she bit her lip. Finally she threw her hands up in the air. "Fine. I'll do it."

Chiron grinned, and the Stoll brothers let out a war whoop that could probably be heard at the other end of camp. Almost everyone clapped, emphasis on almost. Annabeth picked up her pace, and Clarisse raised her voice to be heard over the noise.

"But Chiron, she can't do it." The hall quieted pretty quickly after that statement.

Alexix put her hands on her hips. "And why, honey child, do you have a problem with it?"

"You don't have any experience. She's only been here two days, she hasn't even killed anything. You know how important reflexes can be in the real world. She's going to tire out too quickly, and she'll be easy bait for any monster that comes for them. The least we could do is wait until she plays a game of capture the flag."

Chiron raised his eyebrows, looking at Alexix, "My dear have you not told them your illustrious history?"

I saw Alexix stiffen. "No, and I ask that you keep it to yourself as well. Clarisse, I'm going on this quest, and you're going to have a tough time stopping me. Now, if you guys don't mind, I have some things to prepare. Check you later."

As she slipped out the door, more whispers than ever filled the great hall, rising in volume and ferocity until everyone was yelling. Chiron just waved off most of their comments. I'm not sure what he said, but he walked out after Alexix, so I figured it was something along the lines of 'I'm sick of you freaks, go back to training'.

Shoving back my chair, I stood to leave, but I was immediately confronted by Piper and Jason. Irritated, I folded my arms across my chest. "What, I suppose she's still not good enough for me?"

Piper flushed, "Leo, don't be ridiculous, it's not that she's not good enough for you, it's just…"

"She's out of my league?"

"No! It's just I've…"

"Piper's been having dreams, Leo." Jason jumped in. I hesitated; dreams were something we took pretty seriously at camp. They were usually signs from our parents.

Piper nodded, "I normally see you, but Leo, you're not happy. You're, I don't know, like insane with rage. You're angry, and confused and hurt and horribly, horribly sad. I-I don't know what it means. But lately at the end of my dream I've been seeing Alexix, just a flash of her, really."

"Sorry man, but what with who her mom is and everything, we just thought, you know, that this might not be the best idea for a relationship." Jason said, slugging me lightly on the arm.

I nodded, not sure how to take this. They walked away together, still talking to one another in hushed murmurs. Before I could recover, Annabeth walked up, dragging Percy along with her. It seemed I was just going to get a personal conference with all the famous couples today. Annabeth's eyes were distracted, like she wasn't really here. Percy's eyes were more focused, although they were focused solely on Annabeth. I raised my eyebrows, which Annabeth took as an invitation to jump in with her freshly- thought- up speech.

"Listen, you've talked to her, right?" I nodded, but she didn't give me the chance to say anything. "Are you sure she's from Texas? Has she told you anything that might be part of what Chiron was talking about, her illustrious history? It doesn't make any sense, why would Chiron assume that she was the half-blood the prophesy was talking about? What do you know, Valdez?"

I raised my hands defensively. "Hey, she probably told you more than she told me, but she is from Texas. Trust me, I know the area, and no one who hasn't lived there could describe it like she did." I grinned remembering her quip about the four trees in town. "I can't vouch for Chiron, but I think that Alexix might be it just because the prophesy was received almost immediately after she showed up. We've all been on quests before; I think this one might be for her."

"Yes, but why her?" Annabeth asked, but I couldn't tell if she was talking to herself or me. "We have loads of heroes. What makes her special?"

She was bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet like she really wanted to pace and it was taking everything she had to stay in one position. "We should talk to her, see what she knows. I bet we could convince her to talk to us… maybe we should get Piper to charm speak her, make her talk to us."

I rolled my eyes. "Or we could just ask her."

"Where's her cabin supposed to be right now?" Percy asked, speaking up.

"Cabin twelve's at the stables right now." Annabeth stated confidently, having memorized the schedules of the cabins years ago. She started off quickly, leaving Percy and I to chase after her across camp. When we finally arrived at the stables, panting, I saw Alexix staring wide-eyed at a horse. The horse was beautiful, sure, but it wasn't even a Pegasus. I didn't know what she was getting so worked up about. I figured it was just a girl thing.

When she heard us come in, she tilted her face our direction, but didn't break eye contact with the horse, "Um, guys?" she started in a shaky voice, "is it just me, or is that horse talking?"

Percy and Annabeth exchanged a look, and I remembered that Percy could talk to horses too, since his father was the one who had made them. Did this mean she was another child of the big three?

Suddenly a grin split Percy's face and Alexix stumbled backwards. "Yup, she's talking to you." Percy said.

Alexix moved her gaze to Percy. "Are you kidding me? I can talk to horses? What the flip is this?"

Annabeth cut in, obviously impatient. "We need to talk."

Alexix's eyes widened again, and she looked around the stables, possibly searching for an exit. At that moment, the rest of the Hermes cabin filed in with their usual racket. Annabeth rolled her eyes at the interruption. "Travis, Connor, we're taking your camper. She'll be back by lunch."

Travis, or maybe it was Connor, grinned. "Alright, just don't beat her up too much, alright? She's got a quest to prepare for." Turning to Alexix, he said, "I'll see you at the pavilion for lunch." He gave her a significant look that she ignored. Then she followed us out of the stables while Travis went back to his campers.

Annabeth led us up a hill to Thalia's pine tree. She was talking ninety miles a minute, but I don't think anyone but Percy was listening. When we reached the top, Percy sat down and we all followed suit. Alexix pulled her knees up to her chest and looked out over the camp.

"So?" Annabeth asked, impatiently.

Alexix blinked and turned to Annabeth, "What?"

I tried to hide my laugh, but I'm pretty sure Annabeth heard me anyway. Shooting me a glare, she explained, "What's your illustrious history? What aren't you telling us? Why did Chiron know that you were the one the prophesy was talking about?"

Alexix looked back over the camp. "I don't know why Chiron chose me." She said, choosing to ignore the other questions.

"Where are you from? Why did it take you so long to get to camp? What are you hiding?"

Alexix pressed her lips together tightly. Her whole body reminded me of a coiled spring, tightly wound and about to snap. "You know most people start a conversation with 'hi, how are you?' instead of asking someone to completely rehash the past." Her irritation was conveyed all too clearly through her voice.

"Sorry," Annabeth said, backing off a little. "It's just kind of important that we know…"

"How do you like camp?" Percy cut off Annabeth with a little nudge.

Alexix's eyebrows furrowed, but she relaxed just a tad. "It's alright. It's colder up here than I'm used to, more like February than June, you know? The brothers are nice. There's a chicken lady in your library, I'm not sure if you knew. I don't like the color orange."

Percy exchanged another look with Annabeth, waiting for her lead. Annabeth hesitated. "What color do you like?" Annabeth said, rolling her eyes, but recognizing that her strategy wasn't working.

"I like blue generally, but my favorite color's purple."

I think Annabeth, Percy and I all reacted the same way, stiffening and exchanging nervous glances. There was no way Alexix could have known about the other half-blood camp, the one for roman gods, but somehow she had picked out their signature color. It could have been a coincidence, but if you live by the camp rules long enough, you start to believe that there's no such thing.

Alexix picked up on our silent freak out and backtracked quickly, not understanding the reason for our alarm. "It's not that there's anything wrong with the color orange." She said hurriedly, "I mean, I'm sure it's a great color once you get used to it. And don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to judge your camp based on the color of your T-shirts, it's just that orange isn't my favorite…"

"Oh, no, that's not it. We don't care what your favorite color is really." I said, kicking Percy in a way that I hoped was subtle. "It's just the camp shirts have always been orange. We were surprised that you didn't like it."

She narrowed her eyes like she was trying to figure something out; then she seemed to remember that she wasn't looking at me and dropped her eyes to the ground. "Just another half-blood thing, huh?"

"Sort of…" Annabeth muttered. I could practically see the wheels in her head spinning.

"Sorry you don't like the cold." Percy covered for her, "I guess New York is a bit different from Texas."

Alexix shook her head, her eyes wide like she was afraid she had said something wrong again. "It's not that I don't like the cold, I actually think it feels nice. It's just different."

"So, where in Texas did you live exactly?" I asked, sensing a way into more personal questions. Of course, knowing myself, I'd probably mess it all up, but I figured Annabeth could take it over.

Alexix just sighed. "You know, when you said you needed to talk to me, I figured you would be giving me advice for my quest. From what I've heard, all three of you have been on loads. What are they like?"

I thought about it for a minute. It was hard, having to act like an adult, knowing that your life was on the line and the only person who could keep it from falling off was you. But it was fun too, hanging out with your friends all day, working together, sharing secrets, kind of like building a family. And, of course, there was the adventure part, the rush of fighting something that shouldn't exist, the thrill of fear that comes from knowing that you could die, the euphoria that fills you when it's over, and you've done something no one else you've ever known has done. I think Percy summed it up pretty well, though.

"It's like nothing you've ever experienced." He said.

Annabeth seemed to snap back in to life. "We really won't be able to help you until we get more specifics on the quest. Right now all we have to go off of is Rachel's prophesy which is actually an old prophesy that has been triggered again by some important event. That's you, but that won't tell you what to do or where to go. I'd guess that you won't actually leave on the quest for at least another week. Until then, we can help you figure out who your parent is by asking questions, finding out more about you."

Alexix scowled. Shoving a few stray curls out of her face where they had blown with the sudden cool wind, she said, "Look Annabeth, I hate to break it to you honey, but you're about as subtle as a herd of water buffalo. I can tell you're dying to get information out of me, but I don't have any I want to give. So unless you're really going to help me find out who my parent is, I need to get back to training. I have a feeling that the Stoll brothers can help me a bit more on my quest than you can right now."

She stood, brushing off her pants. I couldn't help but wonder why she still wouldn't look at me. Which is why, as she walked down the hill, I told Annabeth and Percy that she might be more comfortable talking one on one. Annabeth flopped backwards and told me to go ahead, she was going to try and think up another plan.

I caught up to Alexix pretty quickly, but she didn't look excited about it. "What do you want?" she snapped.

I raised my hands defensively. "Hey, relax. I just thought you seemed sort of upset. I wondered if maybe you wanted to go hang out in my cave. We could just sit and talk… about anything, not about the quest."

For a second, her eyes looked hopeful; they twinkled so bright, it was almost painful to look at. Then they dimmed, and she shook her head. "I'm not one of those girls, Leo."

I felt my forehead wrinkle up, "What do you mean? I just wanted to go—"

"I talked with your friend this morning. He told me how you roll. I'm not going to be your plaything, love, fun to mess with while I'm new, then dumped when you get bored. That's not me." She crossed her arms tightly across her chest and started walking quickly down the hill.

"What are you talking about? I wasn't…" a new idea dawned on me slowly. "Who were you talking to this morning?"

She ignored me, so I ran to catch up with her. "Hey," I grabbed her shoulder, and she flinched. "Who were you talking to this morning? Was it Piper? Jason?"

She shook her head and looked down. "It doesn't matter."

I hate it when people do that, obviously it does matter, or else I wouldn't be asking. My mind filled with rage until I couldn't think straight. I tried to keep my cool. "Who was it?" I asked again.

"Leo, let go of me." She said. She was trying to be firm, but her voice shook a little.

I let go of her shoulder, but took her chin—leaving a small spot of motor oil that she probably wouldn't notice—and lifted it until she was looking at me. Her eyes glittered, but they were angry and frightened now, not hopeful. "It doesn't matter." She whispered.

I ground my teeth together in frustration. "It does matter. I'm not that guy, Alexix. I wouldn't do that to you."

She jerked her head away with a little gasp. "That's what they always say, but I'm not going to be that stupid this time." She started to raise her voice, "I'm not going to be played over and over, and I'm not going to let you hurt me again! I just don't want to see you anymore, don't you get that? Just leave me alone Nick!"

I pulled back a little, "Nick?"

Her eyes widened as she realized what she'd said, and she spun away, running the rest of the way down the hill. This time, I let her go.

**TaDa! The quest has been issued. Things ought to pick up after this, OR WILL THEY? No, they probably will. I should know; I'm the author. ANYWAYS, R&R, comment, like, favorite, follow, paint on your bedroom wall, I don't actually care what you do with the story, just so long as you've read it. (and yes, in case you haven't picked up on it by now, I'm more than a little tired.) So, keep being your awesome selves. Thanks, ~NinjaB.**


	7. 7 Alexix

7 Alexix

I know I should have gone to the stables again to meet up with the rest of the Hermes kids, but I didn't want them to see me like this. Instead, I ran to the cabin and flopped on my bed. Sometimes, a girl just needs to cry.

I sobbed until I was out of tears, then I sat up, grateful that there was no one around to see me. I hated looking weak in front of people. I was so stupid. To think, in the big house I had actually been kind of excited to get a quest. It seemed like a big deal. Then I found out I had a gift. I could talk to horses! It blew my mind and made me think that I might actually be the hero everyone was expecting me to be.

Then came the talk with Annabeth. She could have led the Spanish inquisition, she was so pushy. She seemed to want to know all about my past. I couldn't believe Chiron had dropped such an obvious hint in front of everyone. I didn't tell her anything, but that just seemed to make her more determined to find out all of my dirty little secrets.

Once I had finally escaped that, I thought I was free. I was headed back to the stables, honest I was, but Leo caught up with me. He sounded so nice that I actually let myself hope for a second, but Jason's warning rang in the back of my head and suddenly the scene was so much like what had happened with Nick… that's when I snapped.

Distantly, I heard the conch telling the campers it was time for lunch. I flopped backwards onto the bed. I felt too sick to eat. I didn't care what the Stoll brothers thought. They probably saw me as anorexic, just like my mom did. No one believed me when I told them I just didn't feel like eating for two or three days straight, but that was their problem. I refused to worry about it.

Looking up at the worn ceiling, I thought instead of the prophesy. The lines turned themselves over and over in my head, reinforcing the idea that I was the wrong one for the job.

_Three half-bloods, one of frozen vein. _I supposed I was the newest half-blood, but like I told Chiron, I was from Texas. Just because I hated the heat didn't mean that I could freeze my veins.

_Shall bring old hate to light again._ Right. Sounded like my prophesy was to never make any friends ever. Not that this was about me. I tried to avoid drama like that at all costs. The Leo thing was just a minor setback.

_Must battle love and charity. _Because if I found love I would fight it. Yeah right. Given my track record, it wouldn't even need to be love. I would settle for Like. And charity is just one of those things that are undeniably good. I couldn't imagine myself arguing against that.

_To slay the misplaced—_BANG! The door to the cabin flew open. I sat up quickly, reaching for my new knife. I let it go again when I saw Connor. He was frowning at me from the doorway. Then he suddenly changed demeanors. He leaned coolly against the door frame and started counting off his fingers slowly.

"Annabeth was at lunch. Percy was at lunch. Leo was at lunch. I was at lunch. Do you know who wasn't at lunch?"

I lay back on the mattress and pulled a pillow over my face. My eyes didn't turn red and puffy when I cried, unlike Indie's, but I still didn't want to meet his eyes. I felt the mattress sag as he sat down on the end of it. "Parent troubles?" he guessed.

"Parent troubles, half-blood troubles, new girl troubles. I'm just full of troubles." I moaned.

"You know, not eating isn't going to make things any better." He said.

"I know. I just don't eat a lot. I never have. Is there a god for children who are never hungry?"

Connor laughed then bumped my leg. "I don't know about that, but I do know about a few gods whose children can talk to horses."

I peeked at him from under the pillow. "You mean, I get to cross more names off my list?"

He made a face, and I laughed. It didn't take him much longer to convince me to go to the pavilion with him, even though lunch was nearly over. I got there just as everyone was leaving, which was a relief. Connor scowled at the fate, but I couldn't keep the grin from sneaking across my face.

"Come on cabin. Combat time." He finally said, stalking away.

I touched the knife by my side, reassured by its presence. It was a thin blade, better for slicing than for stabbing or fighting. Annabeth tried to convince me to pick a bigger sword as well, but this one just felt so right. I could even fit the blade between my fingers if I wanted, like wolverine.

However, when I reached the arena, I saw the Hephaestus cabin already warming up. Biting back a groan, I walked to Travis. "We're not really training with them, are we?"

Travis looked surprised. "Of course we are. It's good to practice with someone who's bigger than you are. Makes you use your own advantages. Don't worry about your knife though; we're going to start with basic hand to hand combat." He shot me an impish grin, "You seemed to like that better than swords anyway."

My blood froze, and I don't mean as in frozen-vein, I mean I was paralyzed, like with fear, obviously I could still move, just… you know what, forget it. The point is you can forget what my physical self was doing because my thoughts were looking more like this: As though my day could get any worse, they were going to make me fight hand to hand? It was like the fates themselves were out to get me. The Stoll brothers went off to talk with Leo, the head of the Hephaestus cabin, and sort out the partnering. It doesn't take a genius to guess who I got paired up with.

A dark haired Hephaestus child hit a timer with a gloved hand. Surprisingly, most of the Hephaestus kids were covered from head to foot. They must have been coming from the forge or something. "Five minutes to take out your opponent. Anyone left standing at the end of three rounds gets extra desserts at dinner. Ready… and… go!"

The other kids leapt into action immediately, shooting for their opponent's legs or grappling their arms. Leo just looked at me, waiting to see what I would do. Biting my lip, I looked at him uncertainly. "Are you sure you want to do this?" I asked, trying to pretend that the awkwardness of this morning was long forgotten. "I don't want to hurt you."

Leo smirked in that adorable way of his, the left corner of his mouth lifting and his eyes squinting up. "You can do your best. I promise I won't get hurt."

I glanced at the clock. I had only managed to kill one minute. Everyone else was still wrestling. Forget this. I thought, it has to come out sooner or later.

Pushing air through my teeth with a hissing noise, I stepped in, caught his shoulder and when he tried to defend, threw him to the ground. He landed with a loud crash as he threw his hands out to catch himself and hit some of the weapons lined up against the wall.

Everyone in the room froze to look at me. I felt my face burn. Turning back to Leo, I extended my hand to help him up. He took it with wide eyes. "Where did you learn to wrestle?" he asked, resizing me.

"Beginner's luck?" Someone behind me suggested. I nodded.

"Yeah, I'm sure I just caught you off balance. Come on, we still have three minutes." As we squared off again, I had to check myself before I offered my hand for a fist bump. They didn't do that here.

This time Leo didn't wait for me to attack, he lunged forward, faking for my head then ducking to take out my legs at the last minute. I anticipated his attack, but tripped trying to block it. Desperate, I pulled out one of my more dramatic moves, summersaulting over his back while forcing him to the ground. The entire movement was done in thirty seconds.

This time, no one tried to blame beginners luck. I thought I saw some money trade hands between the Stoll brothers while Leo climbed to his feet. "Whoa." He said stunned, "Seriously, that was more than luck. What was that?"

I backed away from him nervously. "Nothing. I didn't mean to…" I was talking about the summersault bit, but Leo thought I was apologizing for throwing him.

"Don't say sorry, that was amazing. Do it again." He commanded.

I looked around the room; everyone's eyes were on us, waiting to see what I would do. I felt sick to my stomach. I didn't want to fight anymore, but there was no way I could back out now. Instinctively, I glanced at the clock, cursing myself even as I noted the minute left. I resolved to let Leo win.

We squared off for a third time, and Leo lunged at me. I sidestepped him easily and kicked out the back of his knee before I could stop myself. Leo just took the kick though, rolling with the movement to try and take out the back of my ankles. I found myself analyzing his position without thinking about it. If I just hit him here…

Leo flew through the air and landed hard on his back in the middle of the arena. The bell went off, and I felt a hot rush of shame. I had just embarrassed the head councilor of the Hephaestus cabin, probably ruining a perfectly good alliance and for what? A few wrestling matches?

The dark haired Hephaestus kid stepped forward. "Well, I guess you get extra desserts…" he said in the uncomfortable silence. I couldn't pull my gaze from Leo, who was sitting up with an amazed grin on his face.

"I didn't mean to…" I whispered, but no one heard me. In a sudden explosion of sound, everyone started talking.

"Did you see—"

"…flew across the room…"

"Like she wasn't even trying…"

"How did she…"

Ignoring them all, I turned and walked out of the room, scooping up my knife on the way out. I couldn't believe my luck. Could I have made a bigger display of myself? It made me a hypocrite too, hating Chiron for dropping hints about my past, and turning around to give a copy of my life story to everyone I knew.

It wasn't even worth the stupid desserts. I wasn't going to eat them anyway.


	8. 8 Leo

8 Leo

She was a fighter. Quite honestly, it was amazing the way she threw me around the room. A little embarrassing, sure, but when you're a demigod, you get used to being tossed around. Still, even though I was small, she was smaller. I had to outweigh her by thirty pounds, yet she tossed me around like I was a stuffed animal.

Then she left. With no explanation, no goodbye, she just walked out the door. I rolled my eyes and chased after her. Everyone else was still talking about how amazing she was or squaring off to fight again. I found her walking at an easy pace out the doors of the arena, mumbling half-curses to herself.

"Of all the banana boat, honey badger moves… such a ditsy brained idea. I oughta jinx the whole room full of flying squirrels. Not even worth the whole flip-flopping place."

"Better watch out." I said, stifling a laugh, "The tooth fairy might wash your mouth out with soap."

She whirled around with a tiny gasp. "Oh, Leo… look I'm sorry, I didn't mean to toss you like that, I lost my grip, and –"

"Where did you learn to fight like that?" I asked, cutting her off, "And no half answers this time."

She shifted her weight uncomfortably. "It's nothing really…" She stopped when she saw my hugely intimidating death glare. "Fine. It was a hobby of mine, back in Texas. It's no big deal; I guess it's just handy when you're a demigod."

I smiled at her. "There, see? That's how you answer a question. Was that really so bad?"

She bit her lip, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "Yes, sweet child, that was incredibly painful." She shook her head and a small laugh escaped her.

"There you go! See, you're smiling."

Her grin widened. "Yeah, yeah. There's no proof of that."

"As though I need proof of your smile. I could always just make you fight something again. You should have seen your grin last night. I swear it almost blinded me." I sobered a little, remembering Piper's talk this morning. I guess it showed on my face too, because the same shadow passed over Alexix's face. "So about this morning…"

She bit her lip again, but there was no hidden smile this time. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have freaked out on you like that. You just… reminded me of someone for a second."

"Nick." I guessed. She flinched at the name, but nodded. I figured that if she even flinched at the name, he must have messed her up pretty bad. I decided to skip over that topic. "I'm not going to ask you about him, but will you let me explain about Piper or Jason or whoever talked to you this morning?"

She shook her head angrily, and then nodded. I decided to pursue the topic before she changed her mind again. "See, Piper had this dream… about you and me. She's my friend, so she tried to break us up before we even really started going out. She didn't want to see me get hurt."

Alexix's squeezed her eyes shut in what I hope was sudden understanding. "But… Jason said… have you ever had a girlfriend?"

The question threw me for a loop, "What? Um, no…"

"But you flirt a lot?" Her eyes were suspicious again.

I suddenly realized what she was hinting at. "What? What did Jason tell you exactly? I'm not that kind of guy, Alexix."

"He didn't say all that much… just that you weren't into relationships. That if I wanted to date someone I should just talk to Piper." She was avoiding my eyes again. Then suddenly, her bright baby blues met my eyes. "I had fun last night." She blurted. Then she blushed and looked down again. "I mean, if you were planning on trying that on another girl sometime soon, I would recommend it."

I grinned at her, "Yeah, I had an amazing time too, but I don't think anyone else could take out a killer centipede like you did."

She laughed. "I'm not sure if we're talking about the same centipede, but the one I fought last night was taken out by some crazy Mexican kid who happens to carry bombs."

I laughed, as though my flames could be compared to bombs. Then, Travis showed up with the rest of the Hermes kids. "Yo, Alexix, I get that you're some supreme ninja warrior now, but you still have to stick with the rest of the group. Come on, we've got track practice with the wood nymphs."

Alexix widened her eyes and mouthed at me, "Wood nymphs?"

I nodded, "I guess I better go get my group, too. See you later."

"See ya." I watched her run to catch up with her group, her light chocolate hair pulling loose of its ponytail as she went.

When I went back into the arena, Jake was waiting for me. "Come on man, Annabeth wants us to make more exploding arrows for the Apollo kids before capture the flag tomorrow."

I headed off to the armory with them, and for the next hour, I lost myself in the machinery. There was really nothing that could compare to the heat of the forge and the sound of a hammer on metal. It was hypnotizing; if you stare into metal long enough, you can see anything.

Once my team and I finished the arrows, we had made about five hundred between the ten of us, we moved to designing the contact explosives for the tips. This, of course, turned into a full on explosives war, everyone launching explosives through the air at one another until the very air was volatile.

"Alright, alright." I finally said, calming everyone down. "We're about half an hour late, but I think it's time to go to the lake. Agreed?"

"Agreed!" was the unanimous reply. While the heat of the forges was nice, the lake would be a refreshing change.

We stopped by the cabin first, to change into our suits, and I took a moment to check my camp screen to make sure that everyone was cool. Jason was kicking butt in the arena. The Demeter kids were rocking out the strawberry plants, and Aphrodite and Athena's cabins were scaling the rock wall. I noticed that my lake screen was blacked out, so I slipped an extra screwdriver into my pocket so I could fix the camera when we got there.

We tumbled out of the cabin and across the valley to the lake, the occasional explosion still ringing out when someone rubbed excess gunpowder on their fingers together. When we reached the lake, the rest of my cabin went crazy. They all ran as fast as they could to jump off of the dock with colossal splashes.

Rolling my eyes, I went to fix my camera, but instead of seeing the clean sandy shore, I saw the Apollo cabin talking in hurried tones to the kids in the Hermes cabin who were all yelling at Percy. I walked over, "What's going on?"

"Aw, great." An Apollo kid grumbled, "The Hephaestus bunch is here for their lake time."

"If only they had arrived on time." A second kid shook his head sadly.

Shoving past them, I caught snatches of other conversations, but the brothers I was looking for were nowhere to be found.

"After the way she ran on that track…."

"Why would they do something like…?"

"What do you mean they won't talk to you? You're the son of the sea-god, make them…"

"Faster than anything…"

Chiron galloped up the slope from the big house. "Travis sent me." He said in explanation, "What happened?"

"The nymphs went nuts." Percy said, "I have no idea what got into them. They won't talk to me either; they just keep saying she deserved it."

"Who?" Chiron asked.

This time Travis answered, showing up beside Percy. "It was Alexix. She was just swimming like everyone else, and the next thing we knew she was floating face down."

My eyes widened in horror, "What?" I gasped.

I didn't stick around to hear the rest of the explanation. I shoved through the huddle of Apollo kids, and found Alexix at the center. She was lying on the ground, soaked and death pale. Connor was kneeling at her side, throwing a blanket over her.

"Dude, back up." Some Apollo kid said.

"Yeah Leo," another one chimed in, "Hephaestus kids are no good around a hospital. Go jump in the lake." Both boys laughed, like it was a great joke.

"I need to know, is she going to be okay?"

The first kid rolled his eyes. "What do I look like, a doc?" more laughter.

I shoved my hands through my hair in frustration. I guess there was some excess explosive powder in there because there was a loud popping noise and my fingers burned. I yanked them back swearing in Spanish.

It was worth the pain in my fingers though because at the sound, Alexix's eyes fluttered open. Despite the protests of nearly everyone around her, she sat up with her hand on the side of her head. She said something I couldn't hear to Connor who muttered something back in reply. She rolled her eyes and shoved him away. He left, though he threw his hands up dramatically first, to go talk to Chiron while Alexix looked around the group.

When she saw me, she grinned weakly. "Hey there, honey child, fancy meeting you here." Her voice sounded like she had been chain-smoking.

I raised my eyebrows. "I'm supposed to be here. Hephaestus gets lake time."

"I'm so sorry." She said sarcastically, "Did my impromptu scuba incident interrupt your swimming hour?"

"Uh, yeah. It did. I'm deciding that you owe me. Big time."

Her eyes twinkled. "I'll have to fix that won't –"

She trailed off into a coughing fit, covering her mouth with her hand and looking away like she was embarrassed. Then several of the Apollo kids shoo'd me away, so I went to go fix the camera. It took longer than expected, and by the time I was done, the crowd was gone and my cabin had the lake to themselves. I stood and was about to dive in when the conch sounded out for dinner.

Of course. Now it was time for dinner. Timing couldn't have been better. I rolled my eyes, muttered a curse under my breath and called for my cabin. At least I was hungry.

**Review, comment, tell random stories, etc. You know what to do. I hope you guys are enjoying the Alexix/Leo drama. Quite honestly, drama's not my forte, but there's more action coming up soon! (does that sound like a cheesy advertisement or what?) Anyways... that's really all I have to say. Thank you always,**

**~NinjaB.**


	9. 9 Alexix

"Whoop-la." I muttered as the nymphs brought out the food. Connor grinned at me from across the table.

"Aw, does our little track star not want to eat?"

"Extra calories weigh you down." I pointed out, "Just saying."

But I grinned at the mention of the track. That was definitely the best part of my day. We had headed over there right after wrestling and found a bunch of the little green skinned girls, the same ones who were serving us, jogging around the track, which was a full mile long. The Stoll brothers split us into groups, putting me in the second one. As the first group started around their mile, the nymphs were ahead in seconds. The girls were crazy fast, I'm not sure I could have caught them in my truck.

I guess my shock must have shown on my face because Isabel laughed at me. "Don't worry; no one can keep up with them. They've been running away from gods for ages. Just do the mile at your own pace and you'll be fine."

She smiled at me kindly, and I was grateful at the thought of an actual friend. Then the nymphs finished their mile, at an average time of one minute twenty seconds, and the head nymph/instructor/ coach person blew her whistle. We all lined up for our mile. I was squeezed in between two nymphs, and when the coach blew her whistle again, we all jumped into it.

I expected them to be ahead instantly, but I guess they were using this as their cool down lap because I was able to keep pace with them easily. They exchanged looks with one another and sped up a little, but it still wasn't more than a light jog.

"Who are you?" The one on my left asked.

"My name's Alexix." I said calmly. Talking wasn't even too much of a strain yet. We dodged around a group of campers who had gotten ahead of us and met back up on the other side.

"How…are… you… keeping up?" The one on my right panted.

"It's just a light jog." I responded, "I had expected you guys to be faster."

"Fine." The one on my left spat out, insulted, "let's run."

So we did, I hadn't thought I would be able to keep up, but my legs were longer than theirs, so I pushed ahead easily. Before I knew it, I crossed the finish line. I cheered, throwing my hands up in the air and bouncing up and down. I had never been good at track before. The wood nymphs crossed the finish line about two seconds behind me. The coach was just staring at me, shocked. I looked around for the group that had run before me, but it was nowhere to be seen. Finally, I spotted them halfway around the track.

Yeah, I was a ninja on the track.

Connor raised his eyebrows—interrupting my daydream—in a way that told me if I didn't eat, there would be worse things than hunger to deal with. I got my plate and lined up with the others to toss the best of the meal into the fire. I was at the end of the line since I was the newest. Looking over my plate, I saw a huge pile of baby-back ribs, a bunch of grapes, and some potato chips. I really didn't like hot food, but I wasn't sure if I should only give something to the gods because I didn't want to eat it. It seemed like that might be kind of a bad idea, so when I got up to the brazier, I slid in the ribs and a bunch of the potato chips. "Um… to my parent, whoever you are. A sign would be nice."

Then I went and sat back down. When Connor saw my almost empty plate, he gave a sigh, but I didn't care. I pulled off a grape and popped it into my mouth. "See? I eat."

Connor applauded sarcastically. Then the serving nymphs slid two cups of ice cream up next to my plate. My face lit up, "I get ice-cream?"

Travis laughed, "Yeah, it's for the wrestling. Great job, by the way."

I blushed and muttered a quick thanks before digging into my ice cream. The cool sweetness rolled over my tongue and shot down my veins like a burst of adrenaline, making feel like I could arm wrestle Hercules and win nine times out of ten.

Chiron stood to make some announcements about the capture the flag game tomorrow night. Something like, don't maim people, killing is bad. I suppose I should have been a little more concerned, but I was way too absorbed with my ice-cream. For whatever reason, my mom had never let me have any. Now I couldn't understand why. Forget the nectar the camp kids were talking about, I needed some of _this._

Suddenly, Chiron stopped talking. Gasps filled the pavilion. I figured this might be a little more important than ice-cream, so I slipped another bite between my lips then looked around. Everyone was staring at me; some people had gotten up and were kneeling. Before I could figure out why, an icy wind whisked my chair out from the table and lifted me into the air.

I probably should have freaked out when it tore the ponytail from my hair and made my curls whip around like medusa's serpents, but I was busy longing for my ice-cream. A few girls from the Aphrodite cabin screamed, which seemed a bit extreme to me, and that was before it started to snow. I reached out my arms, totally encased in a miniature blizzard. I had never seen snow before, but it was beautiful. After a few minutes, the storm faded and I dropped into a pile of snow, feeling somehow heavier than I had before. The room was bathed in a strange blue glow.

No one was staring now; instead, they were all kneeling towards me, even Chiron, though he still looked up at me. "Hail Alexix Storm, claimed half-blood."

My eyes widened, this was being claimed? It was pretty spectacular, to be sure, but I felt uncomfortable with the weight of everyone's attention. I looked down and noticed that I was wearing a full suit of armor, the way the more advanced cabin mates had been when we were fencing in the arena. The crystal-like metal had been etched with snowflake designs and complex swirls.

After Chiron's announcements, everyone clapped respectfully, though there were a few murmurs. Thankfully, everyone went back to their food after that. Connor and Travis were still staring at me when the blue glow faded. I grinned at them excited. "So, I guess I'm going to have to move out of your cabin, huh?"

Before they could answer, Chiron came up behind me. "A word, if you please, Ms. Storm? Connor, Travis, you'd better come too."

We followed him out of the pavilion. I don't know about the Stoll brothers, but I was feeling an awful lot like I was headed to the principal's office, and I had no clue what I had done wrong. As we left, Annabeth ran up to us. "Chiron, what does that mean, I've never seen a-"

"Hush, child." Chiron said; Annabeth shut up immediately. "I need time to think."

He paced back and forth in front of us, and it was all I could do not to scream. I hated it when people said things like 'I have something really important to tell you' and then just stood there silently.

Finally, Chiron spoke again. "Alexix, I wish that I knew who your parent was, but sadly, I am yet unsure."

My jaw dropped, "Are you kidding me? Everyone told me that when I got claimed they would know… that I wouldn't have to be the new kid anymore. I was just claimed, you said so yourself, but now you're saying that you still don't know who my parent is?"

Chiron waited until I was quiet again to speak. "It isn't that I do not have ideas, but they are so unlikely…"

He trailed off, and I thought my head might explode. "Well, how do we find out? Is there a hotline to Olympus that we could dial up?"

Thunder boomed across the sky, and I rolled my eyes. "Sorry, that was rude. How about, Chiron, is there any way I could figure out who my parent is?"

Chiron contemplated that while Connor wrapped his arm around my shoulders again, "Don't worry, little sister, there's always a bunk for you at the Hermes cabin."

I smiled up at him, a little ruefully, and then Chiron spoke again, "My dear, I believe that you have earned yourself a quest."

I blinked, startled. "But I thought that I already had a quest."

Chiron shook his head, "That prophesy may not yet be ready to play out; however, I believe that your quest now ought to be to find out who your godly parent is."

I blinked, Annabeth protested, and the brothers cheered. Chiron smiled softly, and then trotted away, his mind made up on the matter.

The brothers led me away, telling me that we had to pack, that they had the perfect shield for my armor, that since their dad was the god of travelers and thieves, they could pick some stuff up from the convenience store for me, and generally talking too fast for me to understand. I suppose since it was the beginning of my very first quest, I should have been excited, but instead, I really just wished I could go back and finish my ice-cream.

That night, after the cabin had finished celebrating, I lay awake in my bed. I wanted everything to be fine, yet I couldn't help but feel as though my quest was going to be a whole lot bigger than just figuring out who my parent was. After all, it was never that easy in any of the myths.

Suddenly, the door creaked open, sending a shaft of moonlight across the floor and revealing a shadowed silhouette in the doorway. The figure was wearing a shawl and jeans, which I thought was an odd combination. Freaked out, I reached for my knife, but before I could grab it, a hand closed around my wrist. The figure locked its other hand around my shoulder, and I recognized her as the oracle, what was her name? Rebecca? No, Rachel. My vision went dark as her voice hissed into my ear.

_Join the heroes that fly with gold_

_Reconnect the hot and cold_

_See the world in endless strife_

_Replace the order; give up life_

Then she walked out of the cabin like she hadn't just scared the life out of me. There was no way I was sleeping now, so I slipped out of my bunk with the knife and crept out of the cabin.

* * *

**Hey guys! I, being the super-awesome-ninja-spy that I am (not really), discovered a new term on this website. (you should all be so proud) It's called flaming, and it's basically where you hate everything about someone's story and tell them so. I'm giving you permission to do that to me. Obviously, if you don't actually despise my story, I'm not asking you to make up hateful comments, but if you really don't like it, or there's something that's bothering you about the story, feel free to tell it to me straight.**

**So... yeah. Keep commenting, following, favorite-ing. Thank you to all who have read it. Carry on. ~NinjaB.**


	10. 10 Leo

10 Leo

She had been claimed. It was a huge fanfare too, with the whole blizzard coming and decking her out in that icy armor. The glowing blue snowflake over her head was a nice touch too, but I had no idea which god it stood for. I was just pumped that it wasn't Hephaestus. After dinner, I looked for her, to congratulate her on being claimed, but she wasn't around. Instead, I ran into Piper.

"Don't go looking for her." She begged.

I rolled my eyes. "Who said I was looking for anyone?"

"I'm not an idiot Leo, but think about it, you are the first child of Hephaestus in centuries to get the gift of flame, and her sign is a blizzard. You guys were obviously not meant to be together."

I ground my teeth together. "Leave me alone, Piper. You can't know that we weren't meant to be together. Your dream could mean something totally different."

"Would you still say that if you knew she liked someone else?"

I stumbled a bit. "What?"

"She and Connor are talking. Of course it hasn't gone very far yet, she's only been here three days, but look."

She pointed a little ways into the woods, and sure enough, there was Connor Stoll with his arm around Alexix. They were talking to Travis, Annabeth, and Chiron. It looked so casual, but she wasn't flinching like she always did when I tried to touch her. I cursed myself for being so stupid, cursed Piper for being right, cursed the gods for making me look like an idiot. Finally I stormed away, my hands warming up. I figured Jake could handle everyone for the rest of the night. I needed to lose myself right now, and there was only one place I called private where that could happen. So I ran to my cave.

I spent hours working on the Argo II. It was the ship I had used to fulfill the last read prophesies, but I hadn't touched it since. There was rust corroding the bottom, and dust on the deck, but the real problems were in the mechanics. I had let things get loose and oil and grime had gotten into all the works.

When I heard the knock on the door, I thought I was imagining things at first. I tossed a look at the clock; it was two a.m. Then the knock came again, and there was no denying it. With a sigh, I rubbed some of the grease from my hands onto my pants, not that it helped much; my pants were filthy too. Walking over to the huge cave wall, I set my hand on the cool surface and watched as the familiar flaming door came into view.

It swung open, and I saw Alexix there in soft looking shorts and an overly large t-shirt. It was dark out, and she looked smaller than usual, standing there all alone. She shifted uncomfortably and bit her lip. "Hey," she started nervously, "I'm sorry if I woke you, it's just I didn't know where else to go…"

I stood back and gestured for her to come inside. She did, her eyes going wide with amazement just like they had the first time she had come in here. "You realize it's like two in the morning, right?"

She glanced around for a clock, but when she didn't find it, she just shrugged like it was probably close enough to the truth that it didn't matter. "It's kind of been the longest day ever. It seems like a new day would have to start eventually."

I nodded. I wanted to get back to cleaning out Argo II, but it seemed rude to just leave her there. "So…"

She looked back at me from one of the workbenches that lined the room. "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, what were you doing before I came in?"

I pointed to my prize ship, with Festus' head on the bow. Her eyes widened in amazement. "Did you make this?" she asked, amazed.

"I had a little help, but yeah. That was my destiny."

She furrowed her forehead, like she was trying to piece together a puzzle upside-down, but she shook it off. "Do you need help?"

I grinned at her, sure that her tiny frame couldn't do much more than lift a hammer. "I suppose you could pass me tools… and talking will make the work go easier."

She smiled warmly back at me, and I remembered Connor's arm around her in the woods. I turned away quickly.

She climbed up to the deck with me, ooh-ing and aah-ing over every feature. Her eyes lit upon a gold sword that had been left behind. She was quiet as she pulled it out. She held it gingerly, with two fingers, like she expected it to explode. "This isn't celestial Bronze." It wasn't a question, though it sounded like one.

"No, that's imperial gold. A few half-bloods like it better than bronze. I think Jason's sword is gold. He probably left it on the ship."

She nodded slowly, "That's right. He told me you guys had gone on a quest together. Um, out of curiosity, how many of you were there?"

"Seven, but there are eight cabins down below. I figured we might have an unexpected visitor. Will you hand me the socket wrench?"

She did so, but I noticed her hands were shaking. "Is everything all right?" I asked, putting my current project—the flame thrower for Festus—aside.

She waved my question away. "Don't worry about it. It was just a… bad memory."

I pulled my project back, thinking of what that could mean. I wondered if she was thinking of Nick again. Then, since I was thinking about boyfriends, I asked, "So, you and Connor, huh?"

"What?" She sounded startled, but I kept my eyes trained on a stubborn bolt.

"I saw you two in the woods. It's nice that you have someone to comfort you like that."

She laughed, a little surprised I think. "Connor's not like that. I promise. We were talking to Chiron and things got tense. Anyway, he's more like an older brother to me." She paused, "Were you… jealous?"

She sounded on the verge of laughter. I blushed, "You know me, king of jealousy." Then she did laugh, and I laughed with her. "So, to change the subject, why are you up at two? Shouldn't you be sleeping before the big day? You're moving into a brand new cabin tomorrow."

"Later today actually." She sighed, "Only I won't be; Chiron doesn't know who my parent is."

I twirled the socket wrench confused, "But all the signs were there. I don't know how much more obvious your parent could get."

"Do you know who the god is then?" she sounded hopeful, but skeptical at the same time.

I thought about it, but realized that there really wasn't a god whose sign was the snowflake. "Well, not so much, but I figured Chiron would know."

"He said he has some possibilities, but that my quest should probably be to figure out who it was."

"Ah, so tomorrow you're getting a new prophesy." I said, "Pass me a screwdriver, would you?"

"Philips or standard?"

"Philips."

"There's no need."

"Um, this screw isn't going to tighten itself." The screwdriver hit my palm and she laughed.

"No, for the prophesy. I already heard it."

"Oh, that? Don't let that bother you; it probably has nothing to do with your quest. Rachel just gets these funky premonitions sometimes, and they come out as green smoke images."

"No, not that one. She showed up at the cabin about half an hour ago. She… well, I got my prophesy."

I looked up at her surprised; Rachel didn't usually do house calls. "What did she say?"

"It was something like, 'join the heroes that flew with gold, reconnect the hot and cold'." She hesitated a second, "uh, fix the world that's full of strife, replace the order; um, save a life."

I raised my eyebrows, "No kidding?" I laughed. "I'm coming on your quest!"

Alexix shook her head. "I thought of that, but this is a boat, the prophesy says flew."

I nodded enthusiastically, "It flies too. Oh man, this is awesome! I can't believe my luck."

She smiled, though it seemed a little worried. "Yeah, I suppose. Who else is going to come?"

We spent the rest of the night planning and repairing the ship. Well, I spent the rest of the night planning and repairing the ship. Alexix passed out at about six, and I didn't have the heart to wake her. She looked more relaxed in her sleep. It made me realize how tense she always was during the day. Not just when she flinched or got uncomfortable, but all of the time. She was curled in on herself like she wanted protection, and her hands were in front of her face, but her shoulders weren't as tense as they were when she was awake. She was actually really cute.

Then at around eight, there was obnoxiously loud banging on the door of my cave. I cast a worried look at Alexix, but she just mumbled something softly and went back to sleep. I smiled then hopped off the boat and went to the door.

Outside, Chiron was standing with Annabeth, Jason, Piper, and Percy. "Is she in here?" Annabeth demanded, pushing past me.

"Please, come right in." I said sarcastically.

Piper was glaring at me. "You let her sleep here?" She sounded disgusted.

I made a face at her then caught up to Annabeth. "Why are you guys looking for Alexix?"

"Rachel gave a prophesy last night." Chiron told me solemnly. "But she can't remember who she gave it to. I had a feeling it was Alexix, but we couldn't find her."

Jason looked over the ship, "Still looks good, Valdez. Did you give it a touch up?"

I scoffed, "Do I ever give touch ups? I gave it a complete remodeling."

Alexix had woken up now, and she leaned over the side of the boat. Her shoulders had tightened up again, but I wouldn't have noticed if I wasn't looking for it. "Hey, are you guys ready to go?"

Most of the others looked at each other, confused. Alexix hurriedly explained her prophesy last night and her theory of needing to get the team of seven back together. They all agreed that she had probably guessed right. Chiron immediately sent them off to pack. Only Annabeth stayed.

"I suppose you have a plan, too? It seems a little excessive to me. Why would you possibly need all seven of us just to find out who your parent is? No offense, but it isn't that big of a deal."

Alexix squared up her shoulders and stared Annabeth down. "As a matter of fact, I do have a plan. And finding out my heritage is only step one. The next great prophesy just began, sweet child, and you're a part of it. Now why don't you go pack?"

Annabeth flushed, a nasty scowl flashing across her face, but in the end, she went to go pack. I stared at Alexix with new respect. People didn't often talk to Annabeth like that. Chiron looked like he wanted to scold her, but held himself back. Instead he said, "Are you sure those were the exact lines of the prophesy?"

Alexix bit her lip. "Yes. That's what Rachel said."

Chiron looked disappointed, as though it saddened him when people tried not telling him the whole truth. "Very well, but remember, the oracle's words are often confusing. You may not understand the full meaning until after the events have taken place."

He sent me away to go pack too, and Alexix followed me out of the cave. "Thanks for, you know, letting me hang with you last night."

I smiled at her. "Anytime."


	11. 11 Alexix

11 Alexix

My first quest. After my freak out with Rachel, I actually started getting excited. I felt a little bad for lying to Leo and Chiron, but I figured if they knew what the lines really were, they would never let me leave the camp. A real quest, just like heroes used to do. My stuff was mostly packed in my duffle bag, plus a few extra things the Stoll brothers had given me. I hugged them both on my way out even though I hated people touching me. If anyone deserved hugs it was the Stoll brothers. I waved goodbye to Isabel and the rest of the cabin too. Odds were that when I came back, I wasn't going to be in their cabin.

I was the first one back to Bunker 9, Leo's cave, so I waited outside. There were a few growls in the woods, but nothing bothered me until Piper came back. "Hey, Alexix." She said brightly.

"Hey, Piper." My tone was bright too, about as bright as the fur of a black bear whose been rolling in mud lying in shadows at midnight, if you get what I mean.

She shifted uncomfortably. "Listen, I have a feeling we got off on the wrong foot."

"You know, that usually happens when people try to break me up with people I've only just met." I said coldly.

At least Piper had the decency to look guilty. I had to give her some credit for that. "Look, about that. I've decided that the more I try to stop it, the worse it's going to get. So if you want Leo, you can have him."

"Gee, thanks." I said sarcastically. "You know, sweet honey child, that would have been nice yesterday before he friend zoned me, but I suppose that's the job of the Aphrodite cabin, right?" I gave a bitter laugh.

Piper looked really upset now. "No, that's not our purpose. And I really am sorry; I'll set you back up. I didn't mean for him to friend zone you."

"I don't need you to set us back up, sweet child." I snapped, "I know you meant for him to drop me like a hot tamale, but I think our relationship would have been better if you had never gotten involved."

"Maybe it would have been _better _if you had been claimed when you were thirteen, like everyone else. Now we have to go searching for your parent who obviously doesn't want you, and I'm going to be worrying about Leo the whole time. I don't even know why I'm needed for this stupid quest. If your parent doesn't want you, we shouldn't force you on her."

I gripped the hilt of my knife. "You'd better shut your face, beauty queen, or this could be a _very_ long quest."

She pulled out her own dagger and pretended to examine the edge. "Ooh, very scary, but you're not the only girl here with a knife."

Just then Percy walked up to the cave. He dropped his duffle bag on the ground and looked between me and Piper. "Now girls, you're both pretty." His tone was light, but I could tell he was ready to jump in if we really started fighting.

I tossed him a grin, but didn't relax my stance until Piper turned away. Obviously, we weren't going to have this fight today. Fine by me. I let go of my knife and turned to Percy. "I don't suppose you have some secret key to get into this place?" I asked, only half joking.

Percy laughed, "This isn't my quest; I'm just along for the ride. If anyone was in charge of secret-key-keeping, it was you."

I sighed and leaned back against the rock cave wall to wait for everyone else. Jason and Annabeth ran up a few minutes later. "Sorry we're late." Annabeth panted, "We were Iris messaging Frank and Hazel. They're going to meet us somewhere. Unfortunately, I didn't know where to tell them to meet us because I'm not sure where we're headed."

They all looked at me expectantly. "We're going to Texas." I said without hesitation.

"Texas?" Jason asked, "Why? Wasn't your symbol the snowflake? Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Texas stay pretty hot year round?"

I nodded, "Yeah, I hate it too, but that's where my family is. I figure they're the best place to start if I want information on where I came from."

Jason nodded like it made sense, but Percy was frowning. "Texas, like, by the coast Texas?"

I realized that as the son of Poseidon, he would probably be uncomfortable without a huge body of water nearby. Wincing apologetically, I clarified, "Um, more like the Mexico border Texas. We get about two inches of rain on average per year. Sorry."

Then Leo strolled up, "Alright, everyone ready to get started?" he asked, nearly exploding with energy.

We all agreed, though Percy looked unhappy, and headed inside.

If I thought the Argo II was cool from the outside, what was inside blew my mind. There was a full missile center with weapons that ranged from steak knives to rocket launchers. There was a lounge with game consoles I had never even heard of and a round table in the middle that I assumed was for meetings. Then there were the eight rooms. Seven of them were already claimed, but my room was stunning. There was the king sized mattress, for one, then the Jacuzzi, flat screen, sound system and smart board for strategizing.

I flopped on the bed laughing, and looked at Leo. "This is amazing. I could stay in this one room forever."

He grinned, proud of himself. "That was what I was going for, but you have to give me the exact coordinates of your house, so don't get too comfortable."

He led me out to the control panel. There were more game systems in here, which I found odd, but Leo said they were for controlling the ship. He pointed to a microphone hanging down from the ceiling. "Now just give it coordinates, or if you don't know those, your address should work."

I called out my address, but nothing happened. I looked at Leo nervously, and he grinned at me.

"Festus, display the aerial cameras on screen three." A television set on the right hand wall showed an image of the camp, shrinking as we got farther away. As I watched, it seemed to blur looking more like a farm.

"So what now?" I asked.

"Now, we wait." Leo said, sinking into a revolving chair with one of the Wii controllers. He let out a massive yawn. "You may want to take another nap. You never know when you're going to get to sleep on a quest."

I left, but instead of going back to my amazing suite, I headed up on deck. I saw Annabeth talking to a film of water. When she caught sight of me, she waved me over. Inside the mist, I saw a stocky boy with his arm around a dark skinned girl who was stroking a horse. "This is Alexix." Annabeth said, "Alexix, that's Frank and Hazel. I was just giving them directions to meet us, but you probably know the area better than I do."

I stepped in front of the mist, and Frank frowned, like I had already messed up. I decided to ignore him. "So, when you get into Texas, you should head to the Brownsville area. There's a big Wal-Mart near the edge of town, we can meet you there."

Hazel nodded, "Alright, that's near the Mexican border, right? We'll meet you there tonight."

I started to tell them that there was no way we could make it from Long Island to Brownsville by tonight, since we hadn't started until noon, but Annabeth waved her hand through the mist and the image disappeared. "Don't worry," Annabeth said, reading my mind, "This ship moves faster than you might think."

I just nodded. I was done being surprised by now. I decided to take Leo's advice. I walked downstairs; ignoring the group huddled down in the common area, and passed out on my bed.

**Like always Read, Review, Flame, Print out and put in a bottle to be thrown out to sea... Just keep doing what you normally do. I'll update soon.**


	12. 12 Leo

12 Leo

We passed over Brownsville at about three in the afternoon, so I switched the mic over to loudspeaker and put on my best announcer's voice. "This is your amazing, competent, and handsome captain Leo speaking, we'll be arriving at our destination in about two minutes, so get all of your hands on deck and start singing yo- ho yo- ho. We need to make a good impression on these people."

I thought I heard Piper's laugh as she walked past my door, but it was probably just wishful thinking. Piper was more likely to roll her eyes at one of my jokes. Picking up a couple of Wii controllers, I climbed up to the top level and gathered with everyone else on the edge. The heat was welcome after the lukewarm summers we got on Long Island, there was a lot less humidity here too. It had to be at least 105 degrees out, hot enough that your eyeballs dried as soon as you finished blinking. There wasn't a whole lot to see below us, mainly dirt, but in the middle of all the dirt, I saw a few hopeful trees and a huge white house.

"That's it." Alexix said, and I didn't need to see her to hear the smile in her voice.

Suddenly, I felt Jason tense up beside me. "Looks like we've got company." He said, flipping his coin so it came up as a spear. I knew that was how he shot lightning, so I took several steps back.

Peering down, I saw a dozen dark shadows running around. At least half a dozen of them looked unfriendly. Even from this high up, I could hear screams, and the air smelled suspiciously like smoke. Speaking into a remote, I said, "Festus, ready the armory. Be prepared to shoot bad monsters." That was a voice command that put Festus on the ready.

"No wait, Jason, Leo, don't shoot." Alexix said, shoving Jason away from the edge.

Piper snarled at her, but Annabeth tried the more reasonable approach. "Alexix, even if all of your family's out there, that still leaves seven monsters surrounding your house. Why shouldn't we shoot? We need the advantage of an air attack."

Alexix actually laughed. "Trust me; those little monsters aren't going to hurt you. They're my family."

Annabeth didn't seem to know how to answer that, but Percy said, peering over the side of the ship, "She's right. They're just kids."

Annabeth, the strategist, suggested that Percy go with Jason and Piper to wait for Hazel and Frank at the Wal-Mart. I handed Percy the controls and climbed into a lifeboat that flew my team down to the fields. It was hard to see Festus fly away, but I figured I would see him again soon.

The minute the life boat landed, Alexix leapt out and ran over to the yard. She was immediately mobbed by screaming children. Annabeth and I exchanged looks. "I still think there's something fishy going on. She told me she only had one sister and three brothers. I think the mist might be messing with her mind. You go with her; I'm going to do a perimeter check. I'll meet up with you in a few minutes."

I nodded and she left, pulling out her knife. Meanwhile, the kids were still yelling.

"Lexi! You came back!"

"Alex? Mom said you weren't going to be back until winter time."

A little girl with peaked eyes ran up to me, "Hey X, who is this? Did you bring a friend over for us to play with?"

Alexix smiled. "Guys, this is Leo. Leo, this is Indie, West, Chima, Marshal, Digger, Tex, June, Eloise, Thomas, Spencer and Toby." She spun, pointing to everyone individually even as they ran in circles around her. The kids all seemed to be from different families; I wouldn't have guessed that they were related. It was like that song kids sang in church: red and yellow, black and white.

"Where's Ramon?" she asked the little girl, Indie.

"He's with mom, inside. He's not 'lowed to come out any more on account of he broke his arm."

Alexix started walking inside and a few of the kids ran off. "How'd he break his arm?"

Eloise spoke up; she had an accent like she was up from the Bronx. She sounded a little bit like Percy actually. "He went and fell out of a tree, stupid boy. Because mom made him go climb up the maple."

Alexix frowned. "Why would she make him climb up the tree?"

"On account of he took June's little china doll and threw it up there, so she made him go and get it. Or elses she wouldn't have gived him dessert."

They kept talking, but a little boy tugged on my arm. "Hey m-mister?"

I looked down at a little boy that looked Egyptian. "Yeah?"

"I'm West by the way. B-but listen, you ha-have to get Lexix inside." He said. He was so serious, like it was a matter of life and death.

"Okay, little man. Sure thing. We'll head in soon. She's just saying hi to everyone."

He shook his head insistently. "N-no. You need to g-get her in n-now. It's too ho-hot out."

Another boy came up and tackled him from behind. They wrestled a bit on the ground, but I pulled them apart. "Wait, wait, what do you mean she can't be outside?"

The boy who had tackled him glared up at me like I had interrupted something hugely important. "Aw, he don't mean nothing 'bout that. She just can't take heat very much. First, she gets all headache-y, then she does the whole 'oh, I'm so weak, I can't think'. That's important. Then she starts denying it like," he put on a high pitched voice, "'I'm fine. Don't talk about it. There ain't nothin' wrong with me. You're being ridiculous, I'm just a little tired.' Then," he flopped backwards with a spasm.

"Y-yeah." West said, "s-so you g-gotta watch out for her a-at the b-bad girl camp. K-keep her safe."

I nodded, trying to process everything he was saying. Before I could draw any conclusion, though, he was pushing me toward the house. "G-go!"

So I walked over to the house and pushed open the door to go inside where I saw Alexix speaking with a woman I would have assumed was her mom, except she looked Mexican, like me. I was glad the investigation was so easy. Clearly, Alexix's godly side came from her mom. When her mom, or the lady Alexix must have thought was her mom, spotted me, she pointed a crooked finger with blood a red nail in my direction. "Oh no!" she yelled, "We do not accept his kind in here."

Alexix looked appalled. "Mother! You can't just say stuff like that!"

"First, you insult me. You throw my money in my face, like you don't even care. I worked hard to get you into that camp mija! How could you run away after only two days? And now this? This is too much. Don't you bring him in here." She turned to me, "Get out. You are not welcome. Do not speak to my children."

"Mother, stop it! One, you didn't pay anything to get me into that camp; I got in free because the authorities made me go. Two, you're the one who's always telling me that racism isn't acceptable. And three, you and Ramon are both from Mexico, how can you possibly tell me that this isn't okay?"

"This isn't racism, you thick headed girl, this is something much worse. He," she jabbed her finger at me again, "is something much worse."

"You mean a half-blood." Alexix said; her mother flinched.

"Don't you say that, don't you speak of that here." Her mother was shrieking now, waving her hands in the air. "Don't you let my children hear that term. I refuse to let those things happen. They cannot exist!"

"Mom," Alexix pleaded, "I am one of those people. Don't tell me they don't exist."

"No!" her mom shouted. "He told me I would be safe here. He told me he could protect you."

Suddenly, a little face poked around the corner. I assumed it was Ramon since his arm was in a sling. "Momma, can I…" his eyes lit up when he saw Alexix "Ally!" He ran and leapt towards her. Alexix caught him grinning as though this was a circus act that they practiced all the time. I noticed her gently move around his sling though. She was careful not to bump it.

"Hey, Ramon!" she sounded just as excited to see him, "I heard you finally fell out of the old maple, huh?"

He pouted and punched her with his good arm. "I didn't fall. I jumped, just like we practiced; only momma had already taken you away to the bad girl camp, so you didn't catch me. I called out your name."

Alexix threw a pointed look at her mom. "Sorry, I didn't want to leave."

Her mother cleared her throat. "Fine. We'll have your talk. Ramon, mijo, why don't we set you up with an art project?"

She led him away, and Alexix leaned against the wall. "So, welcome to the crazy."

I shrugged. "I've seen worse."

Annabeth came in then, led by a little girl whose silky brown hair was done up in pigtails. "See? Toldja I could find 'em."

Annabeth grinned at her. "Thanks, your name was June, right?"

June grinned right back, and I noticed she was missing a couple of teeth. "Yup. Like the month. It's got the hottest day of the year in it. Didja know that?"

Alexix rolled her eyes. "Longest day, June, not hottest."

June just shrugged and grabbed Alexix's hand. "Lexi, I want to show you what I builded."

"June, I have guests."

"But Lexi…" June whined.

Annabeth laughed. "Go ahead Alexix, we've got time."

Alexix sighed in defeat. "Fine. You guys can head up to my room. If you walk down that hallway, there's a string hanging down. If you pull it, you can get into my room."

"Lexi…." June said impatiently.

Alexix grabbed her behind the knees and hung her upside down, talking over her screams. "I'll be up in a few minutes. Help yourself to anything from the fridge." Then she turned away, "Alright you little squirt, what do you need to show me?"

Annabeth and I followed her directions and a ladder swung down from the ceiling. When I climbed up it, I was in a new world. Her room was in the attic, so the walls and ceiling were connected to make a triangle, but they were painted black, so they seemed to go on forever. The paint was dotted with tiny white spots that made constellations and ribbons of color waved atop those. As though the image wasn't complete, a soft white rug was thrown across the floor with tiny lights glittering in it. They provided the only light in the room until Annabeth found a light switch; there was no window.

Annabeth spoke in an almost reverent tone. "Are you seeing this?"

"Yeah," I whispered back, "It's the… what are they called? The northern lights."

"What? No, this." I followed her over to a closet set into the back of the room. Its walls were covered with posters advertising fights, and the medals that went with them. There must have been at least fifty. Overlaying the posters were pictures of Alexix. I picked up the one nearest to me.

Alexix was wearing boxing gloves and had a look on her face that said, 'yeah, I can totally kick your butt. What are you gonna do about it?' There was a guy standing next to her with his arm around her shoulders. He had his free hand up like he knew she was nuts, but there was no way he was going to stop her.

"Look at this." Annabeth whispered, holding another picture out to me. Alexix wasn't wearing boxing gloves in this one, but she was throwing a killer kick at a guy's head while he laughed. She had beautiful form, but it was obvious she was just messing around. It was the same guy who had been in the other picture. "This… it has to be her 'illustrious history' Chiron was talking about."

"Oh…" A voice behind us made us whirl around guiltily. Alexix had frozen, halfway into her room, and was staring at us wide eyed. "I guess you found the skeletons in my closet."

"No, we were just…" Annabeth decided it wasn't worth trying to defend herself. "Why didn't you tell us you were a fighter?"

Alexix smiled softly, like she was looking back fondly at an old regret. "I'm not. I mean, I'm not anymore." She clarified when she saw Annabeth's incredulous look.

"But you were." I said.

She winced, but climbed the rest of the way into the room. "I'm retired. I don't do that anymore. It- it's a long story. I don't want to talk about it."

I started noticing different things about her room. A pair of boxing gloves shoved into the corner, pieces of something that could have been a colored belt shoved partway under the bed, evidence of a life she might have tried to hide, but couldn't quite bear to throw away.

Annabeth opened her mouth to ask something, but Alexix was saved by her mom screaming up the stairs. "Alexix Storm, if you make me jump to pull that string, you are going to be in more trouble than you can think of girly. Comprende? Get your butt—" Alexix swung down the ladder.

Her mom climbed up, panting a bit with the effort. "You need to make this fast, mija. I left Marshall in charge, but it won't last long." When she saw Annabeth, her jaw clenched. "There are two of them?"

"Three, mom, I'm one of them too." Alexix gave her mom a look, "But you already knew that, didn't you." It wasn't a question.

Her mother bit her lip, a gesture that reminded me of Alexix. "I didn't want to tell you, mija, but somehow you learned… he said this camp would be good for you. That it would help you become good like him, instead of like your father."

Alexix blinked, confused. "Who's he? You aren't making any sense. Are we talking about… dad?"

Ms. Storm shook her head. "Oh please, mija. You came long before that man."

"What? You mean… I was adopted? Mother, you told me I was your first natural, you lied to me?" I thought that had been obvious, but it was clearly a shock to Alexix.

"No mija, hush. Let me finish my story before you make stupid assumptions." She sighed and settled on the bed, watching Annabeth and me carefully. "You two sit there, no, don't come close, just sit." We sat. "Mija, you have to understand, I love you, and you were my first natural. That's true, but… a lot of the other stuff was a lie. You aren't a Texan, and neither am I. You were born in Wisconsin, mija, like me. I hadn't even met your 'dad' then, but I was a child of snow. I loved winter and everything about it; I think that's what attracted him to me. He came every winter and flirted, he could be quite the charmer, and he wasn't bad looking. He never stayed for the summer though, so when he asked me if I was willing to leave with him, I said no. He got mad, and, he took me away and…"

She stopped to take a shuddering breath. Alexix blinked, confused and horrified, and I felt the same way. This was like watching a soap opera. A very, very bad soap opera, one where all of the characters ended up dead.

"It took me a long time to escape. He had guards you see, but he treated me like a queen. He didn't want me to feel like a prisoner. When I finally did escape, I tried to get back to my normal life. Then I had you, my first natural baby. If I thought I was a child of snow, you were my daughter of ice. You had pearly white skin, crystal hair; even your eyes were such a light blue that the doctors thought you were blind. Mija, I'm not sure if you've noticed, but those aren't things you could have gotten from me. I knew then that he would never leave me alone. It was summertime, and a different man came. He offered me protection from your father. That's when I moved down here to Texas. After a few years, your hair and eyes turned darker, you burned easily, you still do, but your skin became a more normal color. Sometimes you got sick, from staying outside for too long, but it made you normal, so I never stopped letting you outside. I met your dad, and we decided to raise you normally. The other one, the warm one, he still stops by every now and again, to check on you. It was his idea to send you to camp."

She sat back, apparently done with her story, and we all sat in an awkward silence. Alexix had sat down during the story, and her head was resting on her knees. "Who is he?" she asked.

"Who, mija?"

"Either of them!" Alexix looked up with rage filled eyes, and her mom leaned back a bit on the bed. "The warm one, the icy one, who are they? How could you have lied to me for so long?"

Her mother had tears in her eyes, but I was having a difficult time feeling sympathy towards her. "His name was Boreas." She said finally, "Your father's name was Boreas."

Annabeth let out a gasp, and I felt the same shock. I had gone to his castle on my first quest. Of course, I was stopped at the door because of my nasty habit of catching fire, but still. That made Khione her sister. "The wind god?" Annabeth asked.

Ms. Storm nodded. "The winter wind. And the other one, that was his brother. He said he wanted to keep you safe, make you his hero to get back at him. I thought I was doing the right—"

"Mom!" a voice was coming through the floor. "Digger's fighting with Tex and Chima, and I can't make them stop."

Alexix's mom stood with a sigh. She reached down to pat Alexix's head, but Alexix jerked back. "Don't. Touch me." She bit out.

Her mom sighed again, and then climbed down the ladder. Annabeth spoke up, "Alexix, I—"

"Don't worry about it." Alexix said, forcing a smile, "I'm fine. Do we know where Boreas is?"

"Quebec, but—"this time Annabeth was interrupted by a little blonde boy poking his head up through the floor.

"Hey, Alex. There's a car in the driveway that might could be important for you." He giggled.

"Why? Is it dad?" Her questions lacked enthusiasm, but the boy giggled again anyway. "Nope, guess again."

Then an older boy's voice called from behind him. "Spencer, get down from there before you fall and break your neck."

Spencer made a face. "Gotta go, see ya, bye." And disappeared from view.

Alexix stood. "Let's get out of here."

She cast a final look across the walls then followed us down the ladder. The panel clicked shut firmly, as though it was resolved never to open again.

We walked through the house like we would walk through a minefield, dodging Legos, toy cars, and small children. A piano started up somewhere in the house, and the sound of tears awaited us outside. Still, Alexix looked like she fit in. There was loads of chaos, but she never paused in her step; she didn't even have to look down. She navigated the minefield of pointy objects with the grace of a ballerina. It was pretty cool to see the way she lived. Living alone with my mother, we never had these kinds of problems, but as loud and obnoxious as this house was; it was comfortable too, like everyone knew their place.

Alexix took a deep breath before walking outside, and immediately I noticed a difference. Her shoulders curled in, and she seemed to shrink, becoming more worn down looking with every step she took. I fell back a little to talk to Annabeth. "Are you seeing this?"

Her face looked grim. "Oh, I'm seeing it alright. I can't believe I didn't figure it out before. It has to be why no monsters have found her yet, but this is bad. This is very bad. You realize that apart from the three minor guardians that watch over his castle, Boreas hasn't had a child in centuries? There has to be a reason that she…"

She trailed off as we saw a man stop Alexix. I recognized him as the boy from the pictures. They spoke for a moment, and then he grabbed her arm. Alexix shoved him away, and started yelling, "Get lost, Nick. I told you I didn't want anything more to do with you."

"You have too much talent to throw it away like this. When I heard you were back from that loser camp, I figured you had seen reason." He yelled back.

"I'm not throwing it away; I'm just not using it to make you money."

"To make yourself money. Alexix, you could be famous!"

"You mean that you could be famous. I already fell for that line once Nick, and it's not happening again."

"Give me one good reason, Alexix. Just one, we were great together, the team of the century. You could have gone down in history, why would you quit?"

"I'm not… just leave me… I can't think right…" Alexix shoved her hands back through her hair in frustration. "Just leave me alone Nick, I have to leave!"

She tried to shove past him, but he grabbed her arm and threw her to the ground. I started forward, but the little boy, West, was in my way. "M-mister, I t-told you to keep her i-inside!"

I pushed past him, "I know kid; I'm trying."

I started back over to the scuffle, but Alexix was back on her feet, fighting Nick. She hit him twice in the face and dodged his punch when he swung. She tried to kick him in the stomach, but he caught her leg and threw her to the ground.

"Hey!" I shouted, pulling a hammer from my tool belt. Not my most original line, but it worked.

Nick looked up at me like he was surprised I could speak. "What's this?" he asked Alexix, who was still on the ground. "Are these the freaks from that camp? Is this the reason you won't come back?"

Alexix shook her head and mumbled something I couldn't hear. Nick turned to me, and I saw blood dripping off his lip. "You trying to steal my girl, freak? Yeah, she's pretty hot stuff so long as it's cool out, but she's not up for the taking. She's mine, you got that? Anyone can see how great we are together; no one else could do what we do. We're a team. And she'll come around, yeah, she'll come around." He spat blood at Alexix who was sitting up with a hand on her head. He started walking away, but halfway across the yard he turned around. "The camp won't last forever." He shouted. Then he shoved a kid out of his way and left.

I knelt down by Alexix. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, fine. Just a little tired. Sorry you had to see that."

I wrinkled my forehead, "You're a little… tired?"

She nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine. It just threw me off my game a little. I should have pulled my kick back faster."

Suddenly, West was at my arm again, with Tex and another boy. "Hey Toby, Tex, West." Alexix said wearily.

They didn't even smile. "Get yo self back inside before we gots to put ya there." Toby snarled, his six year old voice squeaking a little despite his gangster attempt. I was a little surprised, but then I realized he was talking to Alexix.

West socked me in the arm. "Y-you, sir, f-fail at l-life. I s-said to keep her s-safe!"

Tex looked at Alexix then back at me. "Some blonde chick told me to tell y'all that the boat is ready, but I think y'all better hope it has AC. You need me to carry her?" He flexed his tiny muscles; I could probably do curls with him on a bad day.

Alexix waved us all off. She stood shakily and put her hands on her hips. "You guys are being ridiculous. I'm fine. Come on Leo, we need to meet up with the others. Guys, say bye to everyone else for me, okay? I need to go back to camp." Her words slurred a little near the end of her speech, and the boys gave me identical pointed looks before obediently running off.

We started off to the lifeboat, but we hadn't gone three steps before Alexix's legs gave out. I caught her before she hit the ground, but she couldn't get her feet back under her. "Sorry..." she whispered, "the heat…" Then her head lolled back.

I scooped her up without missing a beat and picked up the pace to the boat. Alexix was freakishly light, even if I didn't have built up biceps from working with metal all day. I could almost believe that Tex could have carried her.

When I got to the boat, Annabeth shivered into existence beside me, her magic cap in hand. "What happened? Are you guys alright? Was it that Nick character? What's wrong with her?"

I set Alexix down carefully in the warm metal bottom of the boat then climbed in and revved up the engine. "I think it's the heat. That kid, West, he was really freaked out."

Annabeth was checking Alexix's pulse carefully and pushing her hair, which had once again come loose, out of her face. "Makes sense." She muttered. "Child of Boreas would hate the heat."

I tossed a glace back at her. "Where are we meeting them exactly?"

"Just go up. We should be able to spot them." I did as she said and spotted a huge dark cloud looming in the distance.

"Um, Annabeth?" She glanced up at me. "I don't mean to disturb you or anything, but I think we may have some trouble at, oh, two o'clock?"

She looked to the South and her eyes widened. "Let's go. Now."

Alexix seemed to agree, she rolled her head back and forth and mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like, "Bad bird comes." Or she could have been talking about the Sesame Street character. Either way, I figured it was bad news.

**There you go! Her parentage has been revealed. But don't give up on my story just yet. I wouldn't gather the gang for something as simple as that! More action coming up... (And if that doesn't sound like a cheesy commercial, I don't know what does.) Thanks for all your reviews. Keep writing! ~NinjaB.**


	13. 13 Alexix

13 Alexix

There was too much heat. Smoke surrounded me, stinging my eyes and burning my throat. In the middle of it all, a dark form laughed. Somehow I knew that whatever it was not only evil, but out to get me.

"See the world in endless strife; replace the order, give up life…" Then I saw Leo in the middle of the inferno. I tried to reach out to him, to call out his name, but I couldn't move. The laughter increased in volume, and I felt a deep voice rumble through my bones.

"Well, well. Is that the best you've got? I was expecting something a little more… heroic."

Then the flames covered Leo, and my vision went dark.

I woke up, gasping. Sitting up, I scanned my surroundings, but I didn't recognize anything. Everything around me was shimmering metal except for a blue haze off to my right. There was a roaring in my ears that I couldn't identify until a sudden gust of wind blew my hair into my face. I was surrounded by electric fans.

Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I saw Annabeth talking to the blue haze while tossing nervous glances my way. When she saw I was awake, she waved me over. I saw the Stoll brothers and Chiron in the mist. Connor grinned at me, "I told you, you should have eaten more."

I rolled my eyes, but didn't comment. It let me know he cared about me. "Did Annabeth tell you what we found out?"

"Yeah," Travis said, "apparently you're some super ninja and you never told us."

I glared at Annabeth, but before I could tell her off—or hit her—Chiron spoke up. "Your father is Boreas." He said it like it was a curse, the same way you might hear, 'a plague of locusts is coming'.

"Right. So I guess we can head back to camp now. Frank and Hazel can go back to wherever they're from. I guess we didn't need them after all."

Chiron nodded, "Very well, but be careful child. Boreas is the bitterest of the wind gods, and he will not let you go easily." He turned away at a noise in the background.

The Stoll brothers exchanged looks. "We've got to go." They said simultaneously. I waved, and they disappeared.

I looked at Annabeth, "We're on the big ship again. Where's everyone else?"

"They're all below deck. We're actually on the run from a killer storm coming in from the South, so everyone's manning controls. We should probably get down there and help." She led me down to the control center where it seemed like everyone was playing video games. The two people I had seen in Annabeth's first Iris message were centered around a PlayStation where Percy was showing them how to…

"Is that Pac-Man?" I asked Annabeth.

She grinned, "Yeah, Leo's got a weird sense of… I'm not even sure what to call it, but all of the games are ultimately controls to something else, and while you might recognize the games, the goals are going to be completely different."

I nodded, slowly. Suddenly, Leo danced over from where he had been playing some sort of game without controllers. It actually looked like he was just dancing in front of the TV screen. "Hey, Alexix, glad you're not dead."

I had to smile at him, how could I not? "Yeah, I'm glad you're not dead too, Leo."

Annabeth said something about needing to help Jason, and walked off. I watched her leave while Leo said, "So… you often pass out in sunny areas?"

I winced and tried to bite back the flood of memories the question brought. "Um, yeah. Sorry about that." I tried to change the subject, "Did you build all of this?"

Leo smiled a little and nodded. "Yeah, come on. I think you'd be great at the P-Box."

I tilted my head to the side, "Um, I'm not a gaming expert, but I'm pretty sure it's called X-box."

Leo grinned. "Well, yeah, the original one was, but I redesigned it and named it after Pandora's Box."

I looked at the sleek black device he pointed out, "You mean the Pandora's box that secretly held all things wrong with the universe that she then released into the world?"

Leo's grin faded a little, "Sort of. I think the original one is still in Manhattan somewhere, but this one's pretty cool anyway."

I shook my head, laughing, "I have no doubt that it is, Leo. What do you need me to do?"

He explained the basic structure of the game. It was pretty much a depiction of what was going on outside, but pixelated so that I could fight it in videogame form. The shadow that appeared on my screen looked like a human, and since Leo had linked weapons onto my limbs, electronically so I didn't actually know what they were, I figured it was just like shadowboxing. And I was great at shadowboxing.

I started warming up with a few light punches and kicks, mainly to see how the shadow would react. The thing immediately rushed toward the screen full force, and the battle was on for real.

Twelve years of training kicked in, and I lost track of the world. I jabbed, spun, kicked, dodged, even did a wicked backflip once. I'm not sure how the boat could have been following all of my movements, but I never felt it shake. Of course, if it had, I don't think I would have noticed. I tended to tune out little things like earthquakes when I was fighting.

After a while, I would have guessed about three rounds—almost ten minutes to you non-fighters—later, I heard an alarm blaring. Normally when I heard the bell, it meant I had a one minute break before my next rounds, but this wasn't anything like real fighting. I wasn't in pain, I wasn't actually hitting anything, so I wasn't worn out as easily, and I was on the TV monitor. So when I heard the alarm, I kept fighting for about twenty seconds until I landed—could you land a blow on a television screen?—a kick strong enough to knock the shadow backwards a bit.

With my hands still up, I glanced around for the source of the noise. Everyone else in the room was staring wide eyed at me. Turning back to the screen, I snarled, "You know, your staring isn't going to help us beat this guy."

I heard some shuffling behind me, and then Leo started barking orders again. "Percy, Hazel, that's your bot. We have an incoming attack on the Southside. Is anyone operating the… never mind. I've got it covered."

The alarm shut off suddenly. I got back to my fight. The attack was harder this time, which was odd. Normally after fighting, my opponent will be worn out. It will be easier in the later rounds. This time, the rules were turned on their head, so I decided to change up my strategy. This meant letting him in close, something I hated to do, and hitting him on the inside, where he wasn't expecting me to go.

I normally tuned out the crowd when I was fighting, they were only a distraction, but I heard someone calling me, repetitively, and eventually the urgency got my attention. "Give me two shakes, love." I threw a few hooks and dodged out of my shadow's range. I kept throwing jabs to keep him away, but I turned to face the others.

They were all working furiously at their games, but Leo was kept glancing over at me while firing a plastic gun. "What's up, Leo?"

He stole a glance at me. "I have a few extra Yoshi's and not enough ammo. If I send them your way, can you take a few more?"

I thought about that a bit, not letting it take me from my current fight. "I can take on… maybe four more? How many do you need me to fight?"

I thought I heard Piper snarl from across the room. "Stop showing off. There's no way you could take on five fighters at once, and now is not the time to try to impress Leo."

"Piper, sweet," I snarled right back, "how 'bout you shut your face and don't try to tell me what I can or can't do, hmm? Send them over Leo."

"Alright." Two more dark forms appeared on my screen. I dodged a bit more, but other than that, I didn't change my fighting style that much.

I heard cursing, then someone shouted, "No, Hazel, not now!"

Suddenly, there were two different alarms blaring at once, and my screen was swarmed with dark figures and clouded with a smoky haze. I heard more shouts behind me, and a few muffled thumps as something hit the floor. "Um… guys? What exactly is going on?" I tried to keep my voice calm, but if you've ever fought more shadows than you can handle, you'd understand why I would be freaking out just a little bit.

There were a few more thumps behind me, then I heard more swearing, this time in what sounded like Greek. "Leo, my game's over, it says my game's over." Annabeth sounded frustrated.

"Grab a different game." Leo snapped. "We're overloading. Here Percy, take this."

There were more shuffling sounds behind me, but I couldn't pay attention anymore. I was being swarmed, and I wasn't on the boat anymore. I was in the dark alley after the party, and the shadows had faces. Nick was shoving me around again, and his friends made a circle I couldn't escape. I punched and kicked as hard as I could, but I wasn't willing to hurt him. You can't hurt your best friend. "No…" I whispered, "Just leave me alone."

I was getting hot again. Really really hot. I couldn't think, and my vision was going fuzzy, but I couldn't stop fighting. I forgot why, but I had to keep fighting the shadows, I couldn't stop. Then the shadows disappeared, my screen went blank, but I kept fighting. Suddenly, a voice spoke behind me.

"Always the little vicious one, isn't she?" a dark voice chuckled. I froze. Whirling, I saw Nick, standing there between the games. Then I overheated and blacked out again.

This time when I woke up, I knew where I was. There were tight bonds around my wrists, and I saw the others around me, also in bonds. The room we were in was dark, but little lights twinkled in the soft carpeting. I knew that if I twisted around to see the ceiling, there would be glowing colored streaks.

"Hello?" I whispered.

Something stirred beside me. "Hazel?"

"No, I'm Alexix. What happened?"

The person beside me cursed in Latin, but someone across the circle hushed him. "It's alright, Frank, I'm sure Hazel has been put in here too. There's no reason for you to freak out." The whispers sounded like Leo, but it could have been one of the other boys too.

An orange glow spread across the carpet, and the heat hit me a second later. "Oh my flip… are they going to set the house on fire?" I sat up quickly, making the ropes bite into my wrists, but I didn't care. Fire was the one thing I couldn't bear. It scared the life out of me; my heart skipped a beat or three.

Annabeth hushed me. "No, don't give him away. It's just Leo. He's trying to help us get out."

"What happened to our knives?" I asked. I shifted and felt the reassuring metal press into my hip.

"They've been taken you bimbrain. Don't you know anything about being taken hostage?" This was obviously Piper.

"Don't." Jason warned. The glow had increased enough that I could make out people's faces. "We can't get caught."

I stopped listening and focused on wiggling the knife out of my pants. After a few seconds, I could just about reach the blade. I heard a small grunt of pain as Leo moved on to the person on my right, Percy.

"Hey, Valdez, I get that this is a great thing and all, but could you try not burning my hands off in the process? I've got a special finger I want to use with this Nick kid when we get out."

I heard Leo chuckle. There was a tiny snap as Percy's ropes fell to the ground, and then Leo was crouching next to me. He reached for my hands, a flame dancing near his fingers where he was holding a flame- though how he had managed to get matches by Nick was beyond me- but I rolled away. "Oh no, sweet child, that is not happening."

I could practically hear Piper roll her eyes. "It's the only way we're getting out of here. Quit being such a wimp. Geez Annabeth, I thought you said she was a fighter."

I gritted my teeth, but did my best to ignore her. "Leo, my knife's sticking out of my right hip. If you grab it for me, you can go use your pyromaniac tendencies on our sweet Piper's hands." Well, I did my best.

I felt Leo's calloused hands feeling for the knife then pulling it out smoothly. The tip bit into me a tad as it came out, but not enough to really hurt. Then the bonds on my wrists were gone.

As Leo finished cutting everyone's rope, Annabeth asked the question that I had been turning over in my mind since I got up, "Why didn't he take your knife?"

I bit my lip, but no one could see me in the dark. "He knows me too well. He thought… he thinks I don't use knives. That I wouldn't bother carrying one."

"Why would he think—"Annabeth was cut off by Leo's interruption.

"So, how are we going to get out of here?"

"We could try walking out." Percy suggested.

"Too dangerous, we don't know what traps he has." That was Jason.

"We need to find our weapons." Piper stated.

"We're not going to be able to fight with Hazel out of commission." Frank pointed out.

The voices tumbled over each other, getting louder in volume until Annabeth cut us all off with a whispered "Guys!"

"You got a plan, wise girl?" Percy's grin glowed in the shadows.

"Of course." Annabeth grinned back, "We'll use the kids."


	14. 14 Leo

14 Leo

The plan was simple. Alexix dabbed the end of her string to the ladder in some green paint then lowered it back down over the hall. She told us this was how she told her siblings whether they could come up and bug her. Green meant go, pink meant if they came up, they would be meeting the business end of whatever sharp object Alexix could get her hands on. It didn't take long to work. About three minutes after the string was lowered, the ladder was pulled into the hall.

June's eager head poked up through the hole, "Lexi? I thought you were… oooh, who are they? Does momma know? Will she be mad? Do I need to…?"

"Shh, June, have you seen Nick around?" Alexix tensed when she said Nick's name, but I think I was the only one who noticed.

June nodded, her pigtails bobbing. "He's out in the yard, making a phone call. There's a whole lot of shiny stuff around him, but he wouldn't let me touch it. He said he would cut all of my hair off if I did."

Everyone in the room exchanged glances, but Alexix kept talking to June. "Where's everyone else?"

"Momma said that they had to go out. She said that people were coming to pick up you and your friends, so we couldn't be around. Only, Spencer left his stupid game boy in his room and made me go and get it, and while I was gone, momma up and left!"

Alexix turned her face up to the ceiling and murmured a thank you to Spencer. Then she led the way down the ladder. We all filed down after her with Frank carrying Hazel. I was a little disappointed that no alarms went off, but I suppose not everyone could have an alarm system like mine.

"Who else was left behind?" Alexix asked June.

"Marshall, Eloise, Ramon and Digger."

Alexix brightened. "Digger's still here?"

June looked miffed. "Yeah, said he didn't want to go but I can bust people up just as good as he can. I don't see why you need him around."

Alexix lifted June into a hug. "Don't worry lil sis. We've got a job for you too. Now, here's what I need you to do." She whispered something into her ear while the rest of us crept down the hall. Frank and Hazel were already outside with Jason guarding them, and the next group was getting ready to leave. Before they could, June ran past them screaming something about wanting the shiny dust.

I watched as Nick met her halfway across the yard, yelling. Then, a bigger boy tumbled down the hallway, and when I say bigger, I mean huge. The kid was like a miniature bulldozer; he even had to turn sideways to squeeze out of the door.

"June, you stay away from him. Nick, if you touch her I swear…"

I didn't get to hear the promises he made because Alexix let out a hissed, "now!" and we all sped out the door. Moving in the opposite direction Frank headed, just in case someone spotted us, we crept around the house. Nick was busy fighting off three little kids now, though I had no idea where the third one came from. As we circled the house, Alexix shoved open a window pane. "Hey Ramon? There's a fight going on outside that you're missing, but if you get in before mother gets home, I won't tell."

I heard a quick pattering of footsteps then a fourth child joined the fray. I looked at Alexix. She put her hand over her heart with a grin. "I've trained them so well."

I rolled my eyes and nodded for her to keep moving. "Yeah, yeah. Parent of the year award goes to you. Now let's go, we don't know how long this is going to last."

When we reached the front of the house, I expected to see the ship. After all, something that big doesn't just disappear, right? And the land was so flat and barren that there was no way it could be hidden. Annabeth looked as confused as I was, so did everyone else. Well, everyone but Percy. He was busy frantically checking his pockets.

"Guys this Nick's got magic. Riptide hasn't shown up." Riptide was a gift from Percy's father, Poseidon. It was normally in pen form, and it always reappeared in his pocket after a few minutes. I wasn't especially concerned, no one else had their weapons either, but it did remind me to give back Alexix's knife.

She nodded a thanks towards me, but spoke to Percy. I shrugged it off; I was used to girls passing me over for other guys. "But Nick's human." She said, "Like all the way, 100 percent, no doubt about it human."

"You mean the way your parents were both human?" Piper asked. The look Alexix shot Piper then was probably capable of killing small animals.

"It doesn't matter; we still have no way to get out of here." Annabeth said, getting back to the point.

Hazel and Frank showed up then, coming around from the other side of the house. "Is your family just made of ninjas?" Jason asked, obviously awed.

Alexix shrugged, "Dude. We're demigods. Are you really going to tell me that my family's weird?"

I grinned, as Jason acknowledged her point. Suddenly, Annabeth snapped her fingers. "Alexix, you have a car right?"

Alexix looked irritated. "Sweet honey child, I have a _truck._ Not a car. There's a difference."

Annabeth just waved her off. "Will it fit us all? Where are the keys?"

Alexix caught on to what she was saying and her eyes brightened. "They're in my room. Give me two shakes."

She darted through the front door, just as Hazel stirred. Frank set her gently down and filled her in on what was going on.

Once she had disappeared, Piper started exchanging heated words with Annabeth which, if you asked me, is not the person you wanted to get into an argument with.

"We can't just leave all of our weapons here. How are we going to fight the monsters we catch?"

"We can always come back to her house later. The important thing right now is getting out of here before whoever Nick was on the phone with shows up."

"I don't feel safe without a knife."

"Piper, what makes you think that you'll be any safer facing whatever Nick's bringing with a knife? There are some things you just can't do. And this is one of them."

Alexix showed back up with a little boy, who had on an eye patch and a fake handlebar mustache, riding on her shoulders. "Marshall, you are amazing. Thanks bro. You can go back to fighting now." The little boy bounded away with a squeal of joy. You would have thought she had just told him that Christmas was coming four months early this year.

With a grin, she tossed a key chain about the size of a baseball at me. "I assume you can drive?" she asked. She sounded confident, but even as she left the doorway of the house, I could see her getting paler.

I grinned back at her, "You'd better believe it." Then she dumped a load of stuff on the ground.

"Your weaponry, I believe."

Annabeth shot a significant look at Piper who had the good sense to stay quiet. I scooped my tool belt out of the pile. Then Alexix led us to the garage, a looming metal structure that sat in front of the house. I had assumed it was just a shed, but when the doors opened, it was obvious I was wrong.

Every wall was covered in tools hung on pegs. In addition to the standard hammer and screwdriver, I saw power saws, air compressors, a jack hammer and something that looked suspiciously like a flamethrower. It was the most impressive display of machinery that I had seen since the camp's forge. And the obvious center piece was a shiny four door truck with monster sized wheels and a tool box in the trunk. I understood now why Alexix objected to Annabeth earlier. Nothing of this magnitude could be called a car.

I stood, star struck in the doorway until Alexix gave me a nudge. "Well, go on then." She said.

I looked at her, confused. "Aren't you coming?"

She shook her head. "The garage doesn't have A/C. I'd pass out before I made it halfway across the floor. But I still call shotgun!" she called to Percy who had been climbing in. He laughed good naturedly and hopped in the back with Piper and Jason.

I ran to the beautiful object, and gave a moan of happiness when I heard the engine roar at the turn of the key. I think Alexix saw the euphoria on my face because she smiled from the doorway. Then she moved aside as I went through, and hopped into the passenger's seat. "Isn't she a beauty?" she asked, out of breath.

Even Annabeth agreed, although Frank complained a bit about being in the middle. Alexix settled comfortably into the tan leather seats and directed me towards the highway. Unfortunately, we didn't make it down the frontage road before the truck stopped moving.

I floored the gas pedal, but we didn't stayed still. "What's happening?" Alexix asked. The back window slid open, and we heard the rush of wind.

"There's too much wind. I think we're actually going backwards." Jason shouted.

Then the truck rolled. "Everybody out!" Annabeth yelled when we finally came to a stop, and we quickly obeyed.

I was worried about the others, since they were in the trunk, but they had all jumped out before the truck started rolling. Alexix looked hopelessly at the truck, but looked more upset at the fact that we had gotten just far enough along the road to be entirely alone.

"This is not good." She muttered.

There was an evil chuckle above us, and then it started getting really windy and ridiculously hot. There were screams from the backyard and the evil sound got louder. Now, when I say evil chuckle, you might think low laugh, like Darth Vader if he ever laughed. That wasn't evil. This sound was higher pitched and sounded insane. It sent chills down my spine.

Alexix gave a little gasp, and moved to stand behind Jason. At first I was a little bit offended, ignoring the fact that she was a demigod and should be braver than that, why would she pick Jason? What was wrong with standing behind me? Then I realized that she was only standing behind him because that's where his shadow was. She was trying to stay cool.

Apparently, Annabeth realized the same thing because she stopped Piper from tearing Alexix's head off.

The wind got more intense, and soon there was a dust devil spinning in front of us. Inside, I could see a dark shadow looming. Suddenly, with a splattering of warm rain, the dust settled, the cackling stopped, and a man stood before us.

"Ah, demigods. It's been too long." His words were nice, but if his tone was made of knives, we all would have been shredded.

Hazel bowed her head respectfully, "I beg your pardon, my lord, but I do not recognize you."

The god pressed his lips together, but smiled tightly down at her. "Ah, sweet child of Pluto. I suppose that's only to be expected. Your father has more dealings with my brother. Tis no matter. I am Notos god of the South winds and storm bringer of the South."

"Is there a reason you stopped us?" Percy asked. He's never been the best one for talking to the gods.

Notos' grin faded. "Ah Poseidon's son. Mph. He always gets all the credit. Do you know who came up with hurricanes my boy? It wasn't your father. That credit goes to me, thank you very much. You too kid," he pointed at Jason. "Lord of the skies. Pah! Zeus ought to be limited to his lightning bolts. When he tries to control the wind, everything goes wrong. Even Leo here initially belonged to me. You were raised in Texas, my domain, yet as soon as you arrived at that blasted camp in New York, you were claimed by Hephaestus."

"He couldn't have been yours. They're our parents. You can't take credit for that." Annabeth said.

Notos sighed. "I suppose not, although, I did raise this one pretty well, even if she did turn out a bit small."

Alexix glared at him. "If you were a good parent, you would have let me move back up North."

Notos grinned evilly. "Oh, does the heat bother you, little one?"

A gust of wind sent Jason flying off to the left, and I felt the air grow warmer, more humid until even I found it difficult to breathe. Alexix swayed a bit, but continued to stare at Notos. Soon her eyes became unfocused though, her pupils dilating until they were no bigger than the head of a pin. Her knees gave out, but Hazel caught her. "Knock it off." She demanded.

Notos scowled at her, as though she were a fly he couldn't wait to squash. Then the heat lessened a tad and Notos cast his gaze back to Percy. "To answer your question, she is the reason I stopped you. She was sent to the wrong camp, see. I have control over the camp in California, well, alongside my Western brother, but Camp Half-Blood is in my northern brother's territory. _Boreas_." He said it like it was a swear word. "The point of my raising his brat is that when he found out about her, which he has, I would be able to kill her, which I will do as soon as Hephaestus TV starts broadcasting again."

Annabeth's jaw dropped. I'm pretty sure Alexix's would have dropped too, but she was too out of it to really understand what was going on. "Why would you want to kill her?" Hazel asked.

"As a child of death, I would expect you to understand… but I suppose your boyfriend will have to explain." Notos looked expectantly at Frank.

Frank's eyes widened under the pressure. "Oh, uh, you have a grudge against Boreas? But gods can't harm each other directly… so you're going to kill his daughter instead."

"But they can harm each other directly." Annabeth said, "They do it all the time. That's what the Tornado Alley is."

"You poor girl. You can't honestly believe that the Tornado Alley is us fighting? That's what happens when Aeolus demands a family reunion. We're being _nice_ at those reunions. Even if we do often lose our tempers. Now, if you'll just give up Aur— Alexix, the rest of you are free to leave."

"Why isn't Hephaestus TV on air?" I asked, trying to buy some time.

Notos seemed suddenly distracted. "There's… what do you… no there's… there's nothing I can tell you about. I've sworn."

Annabeth got that look she had when she figured something out, hopefully a way to save our lives. "You swore on the river Styx?"

Notos looked upset again, and another heated rain started falling. "No, I… yes… I can't tell you anything." He seemed to be struggling to get the words out.

Alexix stood, shoving off Hazel as she pulled out her knife. She looked like she was ready to faint, but the determination in her eyes said she was preparing to fight. "Sweet honey child, you just threatened my life. You brainwashed my mother, made my best friend betray me, and wrecked my truck. You had better believe that you're going to tell us."

Piper rolled her eyes, "Alexix, don't you know anything? The minor gods are too cowardly. He'll never tell you anything. You might as well just give up your life now." Her voice was filled with disdain. I could tell she was charm speaking because I felt the urge to give up my secrets, and I didn't even have anything to say.

Notos snarled. "Not powerful, eh? I think you'll be unpleasantly surprised when we minor gods finish taking…" He suddenly went extremely still. "No, no, I didn't mean to say that!" he yelled towards the sky, but he was already being pulled away, like he was caught in a riptide. He sent a desperate burst of wind towards Alexix, but Jason deflected it with a wind of his own. Then Notos was gone into the sunset.

Alexix fainted.

**Thanks to all who Read and Reviewed. Please do so again, or if you haven't, go ahead and join the club. (no, there's not actually a club) Until next time, ~NinjaB.**


	15. 15 Alexix

15 Alexix

I wasn't out long this time. It must have only been a few minutes, because everyone was still in the same place. Still, passing out three times in the same day? How lame can a girl get? When I sat up, I saw the last rays of sunlight fading on the horizon. There was a fire going in the middle of the group, although I have no idea where they got the fuel.

Leo was sitting next to me. "We're going to stay here for the night. We'll take shifts on watch, but everyone needs some rest."

"I suppose my truck's totaled?" I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

"Nothing lasts forever. Not even the best machines." He glanced sideways at me. "My father told me that once."

I raised my eyebrows, "Your father? Like, you've actually talked to Hephaestus in person?"

Leo blushed, "Well, it was in a dream, and it kept getting interrupted by wheel of fortune, but, yeah, pretty much."

"Wow." I breathed. "That's amazing."

"It shouldn't be that much of a surprise," Annabeth said, walking over, Percy was at her side, as usual. "You just spoke to one."

I shook my head. "That was a minor god. I'm not sure that counts, but Hephaestus? He's one of the big twelve."

Percy smiled, "If you stick around camp, you might get to meet them yourself. We take field trips up to the empire state building sometimes."

I blinked. "The empire state building. That's where the super powerful gods of Olympus live? Sure, that seems legit."

Annabeth grinned lightly, but her eyes were all business. "Look, I know you don't like talking. I get that, but this quest is real now. You need to tell us about your past."

I shrugged uncomfortably. "What do you need to know?"

"Everything." She sighed like it should be obvious and I was an idiot for not knowing.

I gritted my teeth. "What could you possibly need to know that you don't already? Trust me Annabeth; you don't want to hear my whole sob story. It's not exactly what you tell kids around a campfire."

Annabeth looked me square in the eye. "I've watched the life fade out of people I love while holding their hands. I've seen bravery that deserves to go down in legends but won't because no one believes anymore. I've seen dreams lost and hopes shattered and monsters that would haunt you for the rest of your life. Believe me, there's nothing you could say that could faze me now."

Her speech chilled my temper, so I went ahead and told her my story.

"Fine. You want my life story? Here it goes."  
My first memory is of a flame. I was sitting in my mother's lap while she sang to me. There was a roaring fireplace in front of her and a snow lined window behind. My mother was too close to the fire for my comforts, it was making me feel sick. I could see the chill of the window, and I reached for it, wanting it to come to me. The next thing I knew, the window had opened and snow was flying in. I laughed and laughed, but my mother screamed and walked closer to the fireplace, even going so far as to shove me into the chimney. The smoke burned my eyes and the flames burned my skin, and all the while the snow danced just out of reach. That's when I became afraid of fire.

My next memory is a little later on. We had moved to Texas by then, and my mom was dating the man she married later on. She told him about how I passed out if I was out in the sunlight and heat for more than a few seconds. He said that the only way to fix that was to make me tough it out. So, they forced me outside for hours at a time. I could see them through the windows, and that was the worst part. I would scream and cry and beg to come in, but they would just look at me, until I passed out.

They did this every day for weeks at a time. It made my skin burn, blister, bleed. It would peel off when I went inside, and it hurt to sit, stand, lie down, move. It always hurt. It made me get sick too. I would plead some more when I woke up, pray that they wouldn't make me go outside again, but they always did. So, I learned to stay in the shadows, hide under the windows. I still passed out, but it bought me a few more precious seconds, and my mother couldn't see me while I suffered. For whatever reason, that was important to me.

My memory fades in and out a bit after that, but I remember each and every kid that arrived. First was my little brother. He was a natural, like me. Then came my little sister, and then my parents started adopting. We had two more naturals, both boys, and we adopted seven kids from all over the world. The house wasn't quiet anymore and sometime my parents would forget my outside time. Even when they didn't, my siblings helped me out by passing out small fans and cool drinks through their windows. Before long, I could last a full three minutes outside without passing out, five if it was winter time.

When I turned eight, I started up at school. I met Jenna, who didn't mind sitting in the shade or staying inside during recess. We were really close. We did everything together. We blew up toilets, keyed teacher's cars, shopped together. She was the one who had the idea to fix up my truck. I never would have bought the run down thing if she hadn't picked it. She was like another one of my sisters, and she was around my house enough that the other kids felt the same way.

Somewhere between Digger and West, the seventh and eighth children, I started up at the local gym. It was my first experience of being hot inside of my body instead of outside, and I liked it. It made me feel like I was in control of the heat. I was good, too. Even though I was young, I could take down teenagers when I felt like it. A year after I joined the gym, Nick found me. He told me he trained fighters to compete professionally even though he wasn't that much older than me. He's a smooth talker, very convincing, so I said yes.

Nick kept his promises. After only two months with him, I was competing nationally and winning golds. When I turned twelve, I started going overseas. I've fought in Houston, Dallas, Tokyo, Sydney, Puerto Vallarta, Los Angeles, and once Chicago. I never came home without a gold, but after my Chicago fight, my mom said I was looking weird. She forbid any fights higher north than Oklahoma, but Nick was alright with that. He kept training me, I kept competing, and I kept winning. I think Nick's dream was that I would go to the Olympics with him one day.

Yet even as I became well known, my mother tried to 'fix me'. I got more outside time and when I wasn't outside, she forced me to stay in my room. She insisted that I had a cold heart and needed to heat up. Jenna helped me rebel. We researched Antarctica and designed my room after it. We painted the walls, bought the carpet and placed the tiny lights in it. I changed my prison into a bedroom again.

Unfortunately, a couple of months ago, my life took a turn for the South. My mother broke the news to me that I was going to have to leave for a summer camp, and that I might never get to come back home. I thought she had finally lost her mind, so I called Jenna and she agreed to take me out. For three weeks, Jenna spent all day trying to get into my camp and every night taking me out to a different party. It was supposed to keep us from thinking about goodbyes.

At one of these parties, Nick asked me if I would walk outside with him. I trusted him; we were dating at the time… of course I said yes. He led me out to the alley where a few more of his friends were waiting. It wasn't until I saw the plastic cups in their hands that I knew they were drunk. Still, I trusted Nick. I asked him what he wanted to show me, and he… he and his friends went ballistic. They said that they had to prove I wasn't as great of a fighter as everyone thought. At some point during the scuffle, one of Nick's friends brought out a knife. I controlled it of course, but I got cut up pretty bad. I've still got cuts healing on my ribcage."

I paused, thinking about how to spin the story.

"Finally, Nick called off his friends. He said he had heard about the summer camp and wanted me to run away with him instead of going. When I told him I wouldn't run with him, he lost his temper. He started fighting me one on one. He was good, but we had trained together. I already knew his best moves, and he knew mine. Really, it didn't make any sense for us to fight, but he wasn't thinking straight. After that night, he started picking fights with me more often, not just at the gym. He said it was just a joke, but it was real. My dad started noticing changes in me; he insisted that I was sent away, so I went.

"So there you go. I think you know the story from there." If my voice was bitter by the time I finished the story, it was only because I missed Jenna. I no longer cared if Annabeth was being unreasonable. My life may have been hard, but apparently hers was too.

When I looked up from the flames, I realized that everyone was watching me, not just my original audience of three. The flame's glowed brightly in seven sets of eyes all turned my way. I immediately started to blush.

"So that's why you came to camp?" Jason asked.

I shook my head. "I was coming anyway. It was just a convenient excuse to keep me away from Nick."

"Is that all?" Annabeth asked.

My irritation with her returned, even though I wasn't sure whether I was more irritated that she thought I wouldn't tell the whole truth or that she was right. "What else could you possibly want to know? Were you hoping I would tell you that after my mom's abuse, my hair finally turned brown, my eyes darkened, and my skin tanned? Because it did. Did you need me to say that my mom segregated the naturals from the adopted children so that I wouldn't get too close to her angels? Do you want me to tell you how it felt to have Nick turn against me? Because every blow of his would have knocked me out if I hadn't dodged. Maybe you want to hear about how my mom kept me a prisoner in my bedroom for the first month after the fights started. Locked up in my own room that Jenna had helped me design. What more do you need to know Annabeth? Because quite honestly I'm tired of talking."

Percy cut me off, "Easy, Alexix, we're just trying to figure you out."

"Maybe we should all go to sleep." Leo suggested.

"I'll stay up on watch." Piper offered. Jason immediately volunteered as well.

I moved away from the flames and the others a little bit, and curled up to sleep. I felt empty inside, like I had poured out my soul onto the dry brown dirt and it was gone. I couldn't even miss Jenna. I was just an empty shell. It took me a while to fall asleep.

**So there you have it. La-di-da. **

**Here's the deal, my school year just started which means more essays and less time for my stories. If you want me to update frequently, you have to make sure this is at the front of my mind which means you have to review. Not that difficult, but it's the only way I'm going to remember to post another chapter. Thanks for reading. ~NinjaB.**


	16. 16 Leo

16 Leo

After Alexix's super messed up story, she was right—it wasn't exactly a campfire tale, she backed away from us and curled up in the shadows. Piper and Jason were talking softly, but they were quiet enough that I couldn't make out what they were saying over the crackle of the fire. Alexix's words kept playing over in my head.

_That's when I became afraid of fire._

Of course she hated my gift. It would be ridiculous for me to think that she could actually like me. It made me wonder if cabin nine had a different curse, one I didn't break last year. Of course, from what I heard, Beckendorf had a pretty awesome girlfriend. Then they both died.

I sighed, and Piper caught my eye. She picked her way carefully across the group. "Listen, Leo," she said, and I figured I already knew where this was headed. "I told Alexix this already, but she didn't believe me. I'm backing off. It's obvious that you two like each other, so even if it's a cursed relationship, you guys can go for it. I'm done messing everything up."

I grinned at her, "Beauty queen, you and I both know that's not true. Besides, I don't think she's that into me."

Piper rolled her eyes. "Of course she's into you. And don't pretend you're not into her. I saw the way you watched her tell her story."

"Pipes, she hates fire. I have the gift of fire. You were right, it wasn't meant to be." I lay down on my side and pretended to go to sleep. Piper took the hint and left.

Even though she was gone, I thought about what she'd said. Could Alexix like me? I wasn't sure about Piper's line of thinking. Just because she didn't get annoyed as quickly didn't mean she was the beauty to my beast. Anyone who was raised with twelve siblings would be patient. It didn't mean anything.

I drifted into sleep.

I woke up to the clang of swords. It's normally a bad sign. I sat up quickly and saw an army of dead soldiers attacking our camp.

Now let me explain something about dead people for those of you who don't know. They're not like you may have imagined them. Think zombies, but fifty times scarier. And smellier. And faster. And stronger. And venomous-er… poisoner? Their bites kill people more.

Now imagine about twenty of those, storming around your campground while a dark haired kid stands calmly in the middle with his black vampire cape blooming out behind him and his pale face set in a grim smile.

That's what I woke up to.

The sky was still dark when I reached for my hammer, and it didn't change colors as I started bashing heads. Smashing zombie heads is a lot like smashing pumpkins, only pumpkins stay smashed. These zombies were dissipating into that nasty yellow dust and reforming almost instantly.

I saw the others fighting too. Annabeth and Piper were tag-teaming zombies one at a time, Jason was summoning lightning with Percy's help to bring the clouds to occasionally blast a group of five at a time, and Frank and Hazel had teamed up so that neither of them had to watch their backs. Alexix was by herself, a few yards away from the rest of the group taking on two zombies. I saw a third one coming up from behind her though, so with a shout, I moved over to help.

I smashed my hammer down on the zombie's head, feeling like Thor, just in time to get kicked in the butt. I stumbled forward. "What was that for?"

Alexix turned to me while somehow punching through a zombie's chest. "Leo? But there was a… thing coming up behind me"

She threw a sidekick into the second zombie so hard that its stomach flew out the other side with a sickening pop. I smashed the hammer back on the zombie that was reforming. "He was. I took care of it."

"Thanks, I suppose."

"No problem. I love getting my butt kicked first thing in the morning."

Alexix laughed. "Just be thankful I wasn't throwing a punch." She said, throwing a hook at the zombie whose chest had reformed. I saw the end of her blade sticking out from between the fingers of her fist.

"I didn't know you could… do that." I panted.

"That's why I picked my blade." I didn't think it was fair that Alexix still sounded like she wasn't doing anything more strenuous than walking in the park. "Who's the Goth kid?"

I stole another glance back through the mob, there were more zombies climbing out of a pit in the ground that hadn't been there before, at the kid who was standing in the middle of it all. "I think that's…"

"Nico!" Percy shouted, slicing cleanly through a skeleton draped with rags and bits of rotting flesh. "What are you doing?"

Goth boy looked confused. "Percy?" he snapped his fingers, and the zombies sank back into the earth. Alexix had just thrown a kick, and with no target, she stumbled back farther into the shadows. I grabbed her shirt, but the hem tore and she tumbled to the ground.

"That's… you're not supposed to be here." Nico pulled a black blade out of his sheath and pointed it uncertainly at Percy. "Annabeth too? And the other seven…I was sent here to find someone else."

"Sent? By who?" Annabeth asked.

"Dude, do you always launch a living dead attack when you come to see someone?" I asked. Alexix grinned from the ground.

The group had gathered around what was left of the campfire, and Alexix and I moved forward to join them. As soon as Alexix stepped into view, Nico whirled on her. "You! I have a bone to pick with you. And I don't mean to be pun-y."

Alexix looked at the rest of the group uncertainly. I realized how she cute she looked in her just-woke-up stage. Her hair was curling out in all directions and her clothes were crumpled, but her face glowed in a sort of relaxed way. As relaxed as she ever got while awake, anyways. I felt myself heating up just looking at her. I turned my gaze back to Nico before I started smoking. It was an unfortunate side effect of my talents.

"Um… do I know you?" Alexix asked.

"Nico. Son of Hades. And you are?"

"How could you possibly be mad at me when you don't know my name? I mean normally people wait a few minutes first."

I grinned, but Nico just scowled. "I'm not interested in your lame attempt at humor. I want to talk to you. Privately." When Alexix didn't immediately move, Nico moved his knife to her. "I said come. Now."

I guess Nico didn't know about Alexix's illustrious history any more than Annabeth did because pointing a knife at her was a bad move. In seconds, Alexix had grabbed his wrist, stepped behind him and shoved him to the ground, twisting his arm behind his back in the process. Once she had him pinned, she sat back a little and brushed a strand of hair out of her face.

"Let's get a few things straight, shall we? One, I don't take kindly to knives. Ever. Two, I don't appreciate you ordering me around like a dog, sweet. As you can tell, I'm just as much of a demigod as anyone else here. And three, well, quite honestly, capes were never cool, and you're not hipster enough to pull it off. Alright? If you can accept those three things, I'm willing to talk reasonably."

She climbed off him and brushed the dirt off her knees. Then she looked up at me, "Leo, would you mind coming to talk with us? I don't think Nico will object. It would be pretty private. Besides, I'm just going to tell the group everything as soon as he leaves anyway."

Nico's scowl deepened, but he obviously didn't want to challenge Alexix again. It was easy to forget that he was only fourteen sometimes. "Fine." He muttered. "Come on. Please." He spat the last word at Alexix, but if she noticed, she didn't show it. She just swept her arm out to the side.

"Lead the way, honey child."

Nico had us walk a little ways off. When we reached Alexix's truck, still on its side, he stopped and faced us. His teeth were set, and he looked like he was seconds away from whipping his knife out again. Of course, the shadows dancing evilly across his face weren't exactly helping. The night air was making me shiver, but the other two looked fine. I lit a small fire in my hand, but kept it close to my body. This helped the chill if not the shadows. I was a skilled fire warrior.

Alexix didn't seem to notice the awkward silence that was going on. Totally ignoring me and Nico, she settled on top of her truck, balancing in between the two side doors. "So… this is pleasantly awkward, but I assume there was something you wanted to talk to me about?"

"I don't know you. I have no idea what you can do, but you must be pretty powerful if you can pull off something this big. Where are they?"

Alexix's face wrinkled up in confusion. "Um… excuse me?"

I jumped in, "You'll have to pardon the newbie. She doesn't know a bunch of mythology. She just got here."

Alexix stuck out her tongue playfully before conceding the point. "That's true. I know the twelve major gods and some of the heroes, but that's about it."

Nico's gaze didn't soften. "So you know about the big three? Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades?"

Alexix nodded, "Yeah, they're… um, death, sky, and water, but not in that order."

"And you know they have a few kids."

Alexix shrugged, "Well, yeah. I mean Percy is Poseidon's kid and Jason is half Zeus… or maybe that's backwards?"

She looked at me expectantly. "You got it right." I reassured her, "and Nico is a child of Hades. Hence the zombies."

"Undead." Nico corrected me frostily. "So where did you take him?"

"The undead?" Alexix still looked confused, but I was beginning to put pieces together. "No, they just disappeared into the ground…"

"Wait…" I said, thinking hard. The fire in my hand flared up as my mind did, but I kept it hidden from Alexix. The last thing I needed was to freak her out with my fire powers. "You said he… who's missing Nico?"

Nico lowered his voice and glanced around nervously before answering. "Hades." He said, deflating a little. His shoulders caved in and he looked dead beat. "I had a tip off in the underworld that the one who imprisoned him would be here."

"And you thought it was me?" Alexix said, angrily.

Nico talked over her. "I've been covering for him, but it's getting really hard. I came to get Hazel, and… like I said, one of the people who crossed against the Styx told me I could find the ones who had taken Hades here. He said it was an unknown demigod. He said she had attacked all three of the major gods, but you either are one of the best actors I've ever seen or you didn't trap them. Anyways, Percy and Jason are probably going to need to take over their parents' jobs until you can find them."

"We have a quest." Alexix said, "You can't just…"

"Make this your new quest. You have to find them. If not…. Well, have you ever watched an apocalypse movie? This will be fifty times worse than that. Whatever quest you had before can wait. I'm leaving now. Tell the others." Then he faded back into the shadows.

Alexix turned to me. "Well… this makes things interesting. Why don't you, um… never mind, I can do it."

She squared up her shoulders and walked back up to the others. They were coupled up in a way that was sort of cute, but weird too. Percy was leaning back with his arm around Annabeth who was sketching something in the dirt. Piper was resting her head in Jason's lap as they talked about something. Hazel was leaning back on Frank's chest as they looked up at the stars. It kind of ground in how single I was. I cast another look at Alexix, who was gorgeous as ever, but if she noticed the pairing up, she didn't give any sign.

She explained the situation and everyone's joyous, or at least relaxed, mood disappeared. The faces turned grey and everyone sat up. By the end of the story, she had everyone so captivated she could have been Piper. She shot a glance at me when she was done, but I didn't have to say anything because Annabeth immediately started speaking.

"Well, of course you have to go. I mean, if the gods need us… and the big three, we can't just ignore this. It's huge. I'm amazed we haven't heard about it yet."

Jason looked horrified while Percy just sat in shock. His face was unreadable, but I was pretty sure there was a storm brewing underneath. "We have to leave as soon as possible. So, here's what's gonna happen." Jason said, taking the control that came naturally to him, "Leo, you and Alexix need to go fix up her truck. Then we'll take the truck to the palace of Notos to find the ship. Once we have that, Percy and I will take the ship up to New York and fill in for our parents while you find them. Once there's sunlight again, we can Iris message Thalia and get her to help. Hazel, if you can get to Nico now, you'd better, if not, you can travel with me and Percy when we leave."

Hazel nodded and gave Frank a tight hug. She kissed him then walked off into the shadows, disappearing after a few steps. Annabeth immediately started planning strategy with the others while Alexix walked over to the truck. I jogged after her and caught up in a few steps.

"So," I said, walking next to her. "I think we need to start by—"

"Jason's wrong." Alexix cut me off.

"Um, we heard the news from Nico. Jason doesn't really have anything to be wrong about. Anyway, I think we need a jack to get the truck sitting up again, and then we can look at the engine."

I pulled a jack out of my tool belt and started lifting the truck up. Alexix did her part by continuing the conversation. "No, not about the information, I think that part's true, but in the plan. It won't work."

"And, why won't it work?" I asked, still twisting the jack. "Jason's not bad at the whole planning business you know, second only to Annabeth, and since her mom's the goddess of strategy in battle, I'm not sure that counts."

"Oh sure, his strategy's okay… the part about him and Percy taking their dads' places I mean, but he needs the ship first, and that's where he messed up."

"How did he mess that part up?" I stood and shoved the truck up. Alexix helped, and though it took a few seconds, we got the truck back on all four tires. "Pop the hood for me would you?"

She moved around to the driver's door which had been dented in. "Well, he said we had to go to Notos' palace, but I think that's what Notos wants. If we go to his palace to find the ship, he'll have us trapped. Especially if he doesn't even have the ship in the first place, ow." She yanked her hand away from where she had been brushing the glass out of the cab. She sucked on her palm while I turned over her thought process.

My hands moved automatically over the engine, summoning whatever tools I needed from my belt and getting covered in grease. It would be a perfect trap, so why hadn't someone seen it? Really, we were basing a lot on the assumption that Notos had the ship. Of course, he was the one who ordered us imprisoned. Then he showed up in a storm the minute we escaped. But while escaping, the ship hadn't been near the house. Then, a new thought occurred to me.

"Are you sure you're not just saying this because you don't want to go to Notos' castle?"

Alexix was indignant at the accusation. "Are you kidding? This is logic speaking. While it's true that heading to the castle of the god of the South wind is absolutely terrifying to think of, it's obvious who has the ship, so there's no need anyways."

She went back to cleaning out the cab, waiting for me to ask the question. I lasted all of twenty seconds before I caved. "So, who has it?"

I saw her grin, though she tried to hide it by ducking behind the steering wheel. "Well, unless I'm mistaken, and I don't think I am, Nick has it."

That caught me so off guard that the bolt I was working with slipped through my fingers. Cursing, I dug it out of the machinery. "Why would you think that? And why didn't you tell anyone?"

"Well," Alexix said carefully, "Notos didn't show up until after we had escaped, so he couldn't have moved our ship, it was already gone when we woke up. Also, when I first talked to June, she said that Nick was surrounded by shiny stuff that he wouldn't let her touch, but when we went out there; the only shiny stuff would have been four knives, a pen, a tool belt and a coin. If there were only seven things, June would have told me there were twenty one shiny things she couldn't touch which means that there was a bigger object out there that was moved between the time June talked to Nick and the time we snuck out. A bigger object like, say… a ship, perhaps?"

I noticed that she had avoided my second question, but I let it go for a moment because I was turning over what she said in my mind. It made sense, but why would Notos trust a mortal? When I asked Alexix, she just shrugged.

"Maybe he figured everyone would underestimate him. He knows I hate Nick, maybe he thought I wouldn't tell anyone."

I stepped away from the truck and looked at her. "So, you're sure Nick has it?"

"Positive."

"Then I think we'd better tell the others."

Alexix looked as nervous as West. "But… what about the truck?"

I rolled my eyes. "Oh come on, don't tell me the ninja is scared." I goaded.

It worked. Alexix shook her head, but grinned. "Fine, I'll tell them."

We went over to the campfire which had been reduced to a few smoldering embers. No one noticed our arrival, so I shot a quick burst of flame into the dying fire to keep it going. It would burn out since Hazel wasn't here to pull the oil out of the ground, but my jump-start caught the others attention, even if it did make Alexix skitter back a few steps.

"Uh… right." She said, stepping back up into the light. "Well, we just, um, decided that… you're wrong."

She explained it to them the way she had told me. Wrapping up with how we could get there once we fixed the truck. I took this as my cue to jump in, "Actually, it's fixed. There's a little bit of glass left in the bottom of the cab and most of the windows have been broken out, but the engine runs."

"There's no glass left in the bottom." Alexix said, shooting me a look.

Annabeth's brain was obviously whirring. "Alright… alright, it makes sense. And Nick should be closer than Notos' palace anyway. We could try it. If you're wrong, then we can just head over to Notos' place after. It might set Percy and Jason behind a few days though."

"We talked about this actually." Jason said, "I'm going to leave now on Tempest, Percy's going to get Grover to send his Pegasus. They have an empathy link, but he needs to be asleep for it to really work. If you find the boat before he can get through to Grover, then he'll take it. So, there won't be a setback."

Alexix cocked her head to the side. "Who's Grover?"

"He's Percy's friend." Frank explained. "He was the Faun guardian that picked him up."

"He's a Satyr." Percy corrected, "But other than that, Frank's right. He's at the camp, so he should be able to send Blackjack."

"Blackjack is your horse?" Alexix was still confused.

Piper rolled her eyes. "He's a Pegasus, you know like the flying horse? Hercules had one. I would have figured even you had known that. Blackjack is a _Pegasus."_

I shot her a look that told her to play nice. Just then Jason's horse, Tempest showed up. Tempest was some sort of storm spirit, so he was more of a cloud than a horse, and you could see lightning sparking through his mane with his namesake, tempests, blowing up around his hooves.

Alexix's jaw dropped when she saw him. "Is _that_ a Pegasus?"

"No, that's a storm spirit." Annabeth explained, smiling. "His name is—"

"Tempest." Alexix said, wide eyed with wonder. "Oh my gosh, he is the most incredible thing…"

Tempest whinnied happily and nuzzled up against her shoulder. "Huh, I guess the daughter of a wind god gets natural pass into the hearts of the wind spirits." Jason said. "Well, I'm off. Iris message me, 'k?"

"Of course." Piper said, jumping up to give him her good-bye kiss. I looked away so they could have some privacy.

Jason rode off, instantly taking to the sky, and I realized I could actually see him. The sun was rising.

Alexix noticed it too, and bounced on the balls of her feet. "Awesome, so now that we've settled that could we get to the truck? It gets hot about an hour after the sun rises, and with the windows gone, the A/C isn't going to be very effective."

Annabeth nodded, and we set off to the truck. This time Annabeth sat with Percy in the trunk so Frank and Piper were in the cab with me. There wasn't much chatter as we drove; Alexix gave me directions, raising her voice to be heard over the cool Texas morning wind whipping through the truck.

We had lost two fighters, received apocalyptic news, and were headed towards Alexix's personal worst enemy. Yeah, this was going to be fun.

**Sorry it's been so long, I meant to update sooner, really I did, then life started happening again... don't you hate it when that happens? ;-p **

**Anyways. Thanks always to everyone who reads. please remember to review, favorite, add to your following list, doodle random scenes on your calculus notes... you guys know the drill.**

**~NinjaB.**


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